Plan Automation Technology Blog

How X-Ray Technology Can Help You with Recipe Management

Posted by Mat Bedard on Wed, Nov 2, 2016 @ 12:11 PM

Meat's fat content has a huge impact on finished product quality.For raw meat products, carefully managing chemical lean (CL) values is a huge concern—especially when you’re trying to create a consistent prepackaged product. For some recipes, a difference of 5% in the fat-to-lean ratio can significantly alter the flavor and overall quality of the end product.

However, maintaining consistent chemical lean in bulk meat production is notoriously difficult. That is, unless you use top-of-the-line dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) product inspection systems that can evaluate the CL value of bulk meat on the fly.

How can DEXA technology help you with recipe management for raw meat products? Here’s how:

Chemical Lean Balancing

Until you check the CL value of a piece of meat, you’ll never know whether it’s too fat, too lean, or just right for your recipe’s value. And, unfortunately, CL values for bulk meat can change wildly.

To control the chemical lean value of the meat in your production line, you can set up two separate bulk meat ingredient inflows. Each inflow should have a DEXA inspection machine on the line to continuously check the CL value of the meat.

By monitoring the CL value of each load of meat, you can mix meat packages that are above and below your target CL value to create an ingredient batch that meets your needs precisely.

This is especially useful for sausage and burger manufacturers to accurately and consistently meet a specific fat content target to maintain a specific recipe (and nutrition value).

Benefits of Using DEXA Inspection for Analyzing Bulk Meat

  • Increased Consistency for Recipes
  • Reduced Lean Meat Giveaway
  • Less Time and Money Spent on Labor for Reprocessing Meat Batches that are too Lean or too Fat
  • Better Product Quality
  • Simultaneous Detection of Numerous Contaminants
  • Improved Traceability When Contaminants Are Found
  • Protects Downstream Processing Equipment
  • Helps to Protect Your Brand Image

With DEXA inspection technology, precisely controlling the CL value of your meat products for tight recipe control is easy.

Do you need stronger recipe control for products using bulk meat? Learn more about DEXA product inspection and fat analysis today!

Fat Analysis Application Sheets

Topics: Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) Technologi