Mechanically separated meat

andrewlee224

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Oct 4, 2020
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In some (often cheaper) products you get mechanically separated meat - which is muscle meat + tendons, etc. separated from the bone by a machine and then made into a paste.
The process is not very appetising and many people hold a view that this kind of meat may be detrimental to health.
However from a peaty perspective it seems it may actually be not too bad - you'd get a better amino profile if there's tendons, blood vessels, etc. added to the mix.
What's your opinion on that? The mechanical part of the process itself doesn't seem that harmful, but maybe there are extra steps, or substances added that would have a negative effect.

Also whenever I eat this kind of meat it seems to be remarkably easy to digest.
 

xeliex

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Feb 10, 2016
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In some (often cheaper) products you get mechanically separated meat - which is muscle meat + tendons, etc. separated from the bone by a machine and then made into a paste.
The process is not very appetising and many people hold a view that this kind of meat may be detrimental to health.
However from a peaty perspective it seems it may actually be not too bad - you'd get a better amino profile if there's tendons, blood vessels, etc. added to the mix.
What's your opinion on that? The mechanical part of the process itself doesn't seem that harmful, but maybe there are extra steps, or substances added that would have a negative effect.

Also whenever I eat this kind of meat it seems to be remarkably easy to digest.

Interesting. I always think of a Slim Jim when I hear mechanically separated meat. A Slim Jim despite all the additives rarely upsets the GI tract.
 

J.R.K

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Aug 4, 2020
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This I may be of some assistance. Mechanically separated meat is the more difficult parts of the animal carcass that are more time consuming to remove the meat from, an example would be the skeleton from a chicken after the mai cuts have been removed, legs thighs breasts and wings. While there is little meat left on the bone nonetheless it is still meat, so as you mentioned andrewlee those carcasses will then go into a mechanically deboning machine where it is then pressed hydraulically threw a series of screens that get finer and finer with the harder bone material pushed out and separated from the meat. While the end result is like a paste the issue of concern in my opinion is that it tends to have a gritty mouth feel if blended in excess into a product. The paste like texture probably accounts for the digestive ease, the grittiness is of course fine bone particles which may from a Peat point of view provide more calcium, however there is the concern of the animal of choices diet, which unless it is a ruminant animal, may have higher levels of PUFA in it as well.Hope that helps and was not to technical.
 

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