Impact of processing temperature on drying behavior and quality changes in organic beef

The drying of meat has a long tradition as a preservation method and dried meat states a valuable protein source. However, processing needs to be adequate, since a high water and protein content makes meat very perishable. As a snack food dried meat is well known as jerky (North America) or as ingredient for soups and meals as charqui (South America), and is usually cut into thin slices before drying. In organic processing the use of food additives is highly restricted and the quality of the final product is significantly impacted by the drying process, which makes the definition of optimum process parameters indespensable. In this study, the influence of 50, 60 and 70 °C drying air temperature on drying behaviour and colour was investigated. Further, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was used to investigate the relative reflectance of beef during drying and to build prediction models in terms of quality parameters of dried beef with regard to the development of non invasive control systems for drying devices