Meat: Is It Done?

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“An equation for the temperature change with meat layer and time was derived. Heat is added during thermal treatment by radiation from energy generators, thermal conductivity, and phase transitions. The proposed dynamic mathematical model is written as follows:

Meat Equation

where t is the temperature; qi is the intensity of the process thermal flux; dh is the cell height; F is the surface area; j is a layer; i is a point in time; lm is the meat thermal conductivity; cm is the meat heat capacity; mc is the cell mass; K1, K2, K3, and K4 are rate constants for denaturation of actin, tropomyosin, myosin, and myoglobin, respectively; m0b is the mass of the initial product at τ = 0; mtb is the mass of the processed product at τ = 0; pH is the medium acidity; m1t, m2t, m3t, and m4t are the masses in the processed product (denatured protein) of actin, tropomyosin, myosin, and myoglobin, respectively (a layer in this instance means a cell 5 mm in height or, if three-dimensional, a cube, each face of which is 5 mm). The temperature changes along the meat layers lead to quantitative changes in the proteins (myosin, actin, tropomyosin, myoglobin) that affect the quality of the final product (softness, toughness, consistency).”

See: M. A. Belyaeva, CHANGE OF MEAT PROTEINS DURING THERMAL TREATMENT , Chemistry of Natural Compounds , Vol. 39, No. 4, 2003