Course Title: Food Technology & Safety

Lesson Title: Preserving Red Meat, Poultry, and Fish

TEKS Addressed in Lesson: 130.13 (c) 2A, 4A, 4C
Lesson Objectives:
The student will be able to:

1. Define preservation as it applies to red meat, poultry, and fish.

2. Identify and discuss the importance of preserving red meat, poultry,
and fish.
3. Identify and discuss methods of preserving red meat, poultry, and fish.
4. Identify and discuss factors to consider when selecting a preservation
method.

Tools and Equipment

1. 1 piece of red meat, poultry, or fish recently removed from the

package
2. 1 piece of red meat, poultry, or fish that has been left out for several
days and spoiled
3. PowerPoint Presentation: Preserving Red Meat, Poultry, and Fish

Key Terms / Vocabulary

1. Preservation
2. Spoilage
3. Contamination
4. Physical Methods of Preservation
5. Chemical Methods of Preservation
6. Microbial Methods of Preservation
7. Hermetically sealing
8. Irradiation
9. Permeability
10.Fermentation
11.Protocol

Interest Approach/Anticipatory Set

1. Show students the two pieces of red meat, poultry, or fish and have
them compare and contrast the two.
2. Question: Which piece would you rather consume? Why?
3. Discuss student responses.
4. Question: How long will red meat, poultry, or fish stay fresh without
any attempts to preserve it?

This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014

5. Have students guess how long the spoiled piece of meat was left out to
spoil and discuss them.
6. Question: Why is it important to have access to a supply of high
quality, convenient and safe meat and meat products?
7. List on the board the benefits of having access to meat and meat
product.
8. Because fresh meat is so perishable, preserving meat, poultry and fish
makes it more available and reduces loss associated with spoilage.
Today we are going to discuss methods of preserving meat and meat
products.

Teaching Plan and Strategy / Presentation of New Material

Using the PowerPoint presentation as a guide, teach the material allowing
time for discussion on each slide.
1. What is Preservation?
a. The use of a process to allow a substance or food to keep its
useful properties for a longer than normal period (Seperich,
1998, p. 6)
b. Accompanied by creating an unfavorable environment for the
growth of microorganisms, controlling certain enzyme activity
within the meat, and prevention of chemical oxidation that leads
to rancidity
2. Why is Preservation Important?
a. Spoilage
i. The natural decay that occurs due to processes in the
meat itself or contamination by and subsequent growth of
microorganisms
ii. Results in undesirable odors and flavors
iii. Preserving meat slows spoilage
b. Meat is preserved primarily from microorganisms so sanitation is
critical
i. Shelf life can be extended by minimizing the number of
microorganisms that contact and contaminate a product
ii. Meat inspection standards and industry sanitation
practices extend shelf life by reducing potential
contamination
c. Question: What are the most common sources
of
contamination of fresh meat?
i. Slaughter facility hide and hooves, contents of the
digestive tract
ii. Workers and equipment
iii. Time of preparation for retail sale cutting wholesale cuts
into retail cuts
iv. In the home as consumers handle the meat
This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014

d. Question: What are the most common sources of contamination

for cured meats?
i. Recontamination from the environment, equipment and
workers following heat processing
ii. In the home as consumers handle to meat
3. What are common methods of preserving red meat, poultry, and fish?
a. Three broad categories
i. Physical
1. Emphasizes the control of temperature and
regulation of moisture
ii. Chemical
1. Involves the addition of chemical preservatives
iii. Microbial
1. Focuses on utilizing microorganisms in, on, or
added to the meat rather than on external control
factors
b. Physical Methods of Preservation
i. Heating/Canning
1. Used to inactivate or at least severely impair the
function of microorganisms
2. Pasteurized/commercially sterile meat product
a. Pasteurized products typically reach an
internal temperature of 71C (160F)
i. Require refrigeration to inhibit
spoilage
b. Commercially sterile foods are heated to
121C (250F) for varying lengths of time
i. Are shelf stable
3. Cooking before consumption
4. Canned foods are preserved by hermetically sealing
(preventing the escape of air) the product in a
container and destroying, through the application
of heat, those microorganisms capable of spoilage
(Romans, Costello, Carlson, Greaser, & Jones, 2001,
p. 707)
5. Canning is the second most common method of
meat preservation
6. Severe heat can result in some destruction of
nutrients, but overall, there is little change in
nutrient composition of meat due to normally
employed heating procedures
ii. Cooling
1. Used to slow or limit the growth of microorganisms
--- the lower the temperature, the slower the
microbial growth
This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014

2. Shelf life estimates (varies by species, level of

hygiene practiced, equipment used):
a. Properly refrigerated and packaged retail
meat approximately 72 hours
b. Ground meat about 24 hours
c. Vacuum packaged and refrigerated meat
approximately 3 weeks
d. Vacuum packaged and refrigerated cured
meat about 2 months
iii. Freezing
1. Most common method of preserving fresh
(uncured) meat
a. Mostly done by consumers after purchase
b. Not as popular with cured meat as with fresh
meat because cured meat is more
susceptible to oxidative and texture changes
when frozen
c. Cooked meats tend to develop off-flavors
when frozen
2. Meat freezes at about -2C (28F)
3. Freezing does not kill microorganisms but
inactivates meat enzymes and inhibits the growth
of spoilage organisms
4. Recommended temperature for frozen meat is
-18C (0F)
5. Four important phases: pre-freezing (quality of the
meat and preparing it for freezing i.e. size and
shape of an item and packaging), freezing, frozen
storage (potentially the most damaging phase to
the quality of the meat; growth of ice crystals can
occur resulting in structural damage), and thawing
(outside may be at ambient temperature while the
inside is still frozen; potential for microbial growth
on the surface)
6. Foods with lower water content freeze better and
will retain more quality after freezing (less cellular
damage due to ice crystals)
iv. Drying
1. Removal of water to the point that available water
is not sufficient enough to support microbial growth
2. Extremely lean meat is the most desirable for
drying
3. Often involves a cooking step before drying
4. Drying may be accomplished by:
This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014

a. Low-temperature drying (less than 120F)

b. High-temperature drying (greater than
200F)
c. Freeze-drying
d. Salting
v. Irradiation
1. Meat is exposed to a controlled amount of radiation
for a specific time to destroy spoilage organisms
2. Pork and poultry were first meats to be approved
by the USDA and FDA to be irradiated
vi. Packaging
1. Packaging is critical to overall preservation process;
meat must be properly packaged after processing
for preservation techniques to be successful
2. Packaging is most often something used to enclose
the meat in order to protect the desirable
properties inherent or imparted to it (Cassens,
1994)
3. Packaging protects products against deteriorative
effects including discoloration, off-flavor and offodor development, nutrient loss, texture changes,
pathogenicity and other measureable factors
(Zhou, Xu, & Liu, 2010, p. 123)
4. Canning and radiation techniques include the
package as an essential factor in preservation
5. Packages suitable for meats include:
a. Wax- or paraffin treated kraft paper
b. Aluminum foil
c. Laminated foils
d. Films
6. Factors affecting suitability for packaging meat
include (Romans et al., 2001):
a. Have low moisture-vapor transmission
b. Have differing oxygen permeability
c. Are puncture resistant
d. Are pliability
e. Will maintain strength and pliability at subzero temperatures
f. Are non-toxic
g. Are odorless
h. Are easy to mark for identification
i. Will peel from the meat when frozen (good
stripping qualities
j. Are greaseproof and stain proof
k. Provide good sealing properties
c. Chemical Methods of Preservation
This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014

i. Curing
1. Salt
a. Salting is the oldest known method of
preserving meat; it is believed that the
ancient Sumerian culture (3,000 B.C.) was
the first to use salt to preserve meat and fish
b. Major ingredient in curing
2. Nitrate and Nitrite
a. Sodium nitrite is vital to curing process
because it reacts with myoglobin to produce
the color characteristic of cured meat
3. Sugar
a. Used for flavor function and to moderate the
harsh flavor associated with high
concentration of salt
4. Reductants
a. Speed up the curing process and make it
more uniform
5. Spices and seasonings
a. Give characteristic flavor
6. Phosphates
a. Increase water-binding and improve yield
ii. Smoking
1. Along with heating, is integral to curing process
2. Lowers microbial population due to heat and the
addition of chemicals during the process have
bacteriostatic action
iii. Functions of modern commercial meat curing and/or
smoking (Romans et al., 2001)
1. Food safety
2. Refrigerated shelf life extension
3. Flavor development
4. Color development (internal and external)
d. Microbial Methods of Preservation
i. Competition
1. Competition for survival among mist population of
microorganisms
ii. Fermentation
1. Strong preservative action and produces rich
flavors
2. Two types of fermented meat products:
a. Dry
b. Semi-dry
4. What factors should be considered when selecting a meat
preservation method?
a. Factors to consider when selecting a preservation method:
This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014

i. The method should be practical and usable

ii. The method should not make the product unpalatable or
worsen its appearance
iii. The method must not in any way harm consumers

Activity/Application/Student Engagement/Laboratory

1. Have students pick three methods of preserving red meat, poultry, and
fish discussed during the lesson and develop a protocol for conducting
and experiment at home to examine the impact of the various
methods on the shelf life of the meat.
2. Students should develop a table and record their observations on a
daily basis.
3. Once their experiment is completed, they should complete a lab report
summarizing their findings.

Evaluation / Summary
1.

Ask the following questions:

a. What is preservation?
b. Why is preservation of red meat, poultry and fish important?
c. What are the three broad categories of red meat, poultry, and
fish preservation?
d. What impact does moisture have on freezing?
e. Why is packaging so important in the preservation process?
f. How should you decide what preservation method to use?

References/Additional Materials/Extended Learning

Opportunities/Enrichment

Cassens, R. G. (1994). Meat preservation: Preventing losses and assuring

safety. Trumbull, CT: Food & Nutrition Press, Inc.
Romans, J. R., Costello, W. J., Carlson, C. W., Greaser, M. L., & Jones, K. W.
(2001). The meat we eat (14th ed.). Danville, IL: Interstate Publishers,
Inc.
Seperich, G. J. (1998). Food science and safety. Danville, IL: Interstate
Publishers, Inc.
Zhou, G. H., XU, X. L., & Liu, Y. (2010). Preservation technologies for fresh
meat A review. Meat Science, 86(1), 119-128.

College & Career Readiness Standard

English/Language Arts
Mathematics
Science

II.B.1

IV.B.1
I.B.1, III.A.1, III.C.1

This lesson was developed in partial fulfilment of the Texas Education Agency
Educational Excellence Project.
Texas Education Agency, 2014