Researchers in Norway are investigating whether mechanically tenderising and brining meat can make it tender enough for older palates to prevent malnutrition in ageing populations.
Malnutrition is a known risk amongst older people, as well as their risk of protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) – which, according to the World Health Organisation, is an imbalance between the supply of protein and energy and the body’s demand for them to ensure optimal growth and function.
To prevent malnourishment and PEM, researchers in Norway are turning to meat, which is not only a good source of protein, but is an food product that many older people know and like.
From Tough and Dry to Tender and Juicy
Unfortunately, older people often struggle to chew and digest meat. So, researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Nofima) are investigating mechanical tenderising for industry. The overall aim is to develop tasty, nutritious, and easily digestible food to prevent malnutrition amongst the elderly.
“Pure cuts of meat are both an important source of protein and a food that many older people are used to eating and that they have enjoyed throughout their lives,” explained project lead, Paula Varela Tomasco, a senior scientist at Nofima.
“However, there are also many elderly people who stop eating meat because they struggle to chew and digest it. It is important to develop juicier and more tender cuits of meat for this target group, providing easily digestible and highly nutritious protein, in a liked and familiar food.”
Tomasco noted that through research, scientists have observed that texture and mouthfeel are of great importance when identifying which foods older consumers prefer.
Mixing Mechanical Tenderisation with Brine
Nofima scientists are conducting trials on how mechanical tenderisation in combination with various brines affect the tenderness and juiciness of beef.
Mechanical tenderisation involves cutting small incisions in the meat, giving the same effect as tenderising the meat by pounding it by hand. This technique could help make cuts of beef more accessible to senior citizens, as well as other groups that prefer tender and juicy meat.
At the same time, the researchers are investigating whether meat becomes even more tender and juicy by adding brine, including a brine with a protein mixture based on rest raw materials.
“There is a lot of water in meat, and the contents of the brine help the meat to better retain its own liquid, even during heat treatment,” explained Nofima’s Tom Johannessen.
“Tough muscles have stronger connective tissue than tender ones. That is why we have chosen three muscles with different amounts of connective tissue for this trial.”
Those muscles include tenderloin, eye of round, and top of round. Some muscles were processed using both mechanical tenderisation and brine – wither a standard brine made of water, salt and phosphate, or the brine with the added protein mixture. Some were tested using the standard brine only.
Tenderloin is far more tender than other cuts of beef when they are unprocessed, but by processing the top round and eye of round cuts using mechanical tenderisation and brine, they become just as tender and juicy as the unprocessed tenderloin.
Between now and the end of March 2024, when the project ends, the researcher will concentrate on the top round cut of beef to taste test more variations. These include testing unprocessed top round, top round using only mechanical tenderisation, top round using standard brine mechanical tenderisation, and top round using protein-enriches brine and mechanical tenderisation.
“We want to find out whether other cuts of meat which currently cost less money, such as stewing beef or bottom round, can be tender enough for older palates, and tastier for others,” concluded Johannessen.
