Pakketeknologi for økt ferskhetspreg hos oppskåret spekemat og kjøttpålegg

The main goal for the project is to ensure that the quality of sliced packaged cold cuts is maintained from production to consumer. The project is separated into five work packages on slicing, packaging, display in store, analyses and communication, all with special sub goals. The kick-off meeting for the project was held at Nortura in Oslo 25.2.15 with all the Norwegian partners present. The project was completed on 31.3.18Two initial experiments have been performed on Santa Kristina dry cured ham and cooked ham. In these status experiments, differences in taste and aroma after storage in modified atmospheres and vacuum according to present procedures were studied and compared to freshly sliced products. Slicing and packaging were conducted under industrial conditions at two Nortura plants. After storage, the products were analysed at Nofima, with emphasize on sensory attributes, in addition to analyses of colour, salt content and pH. The results from the two first experiments both showed minor differences in sensory attributes between freshly sliced products and products that had been stored in vacuum or MAP. The colour of Santa Kristina dry cured ham was more red as freshly sliced and in vacuum than in MAP. Other chemical analyses resulted in no or small differences between samples. Therefore, the present packaging method with MAP seems to be robust and to a large extent is maintaining taste and aroma of cold cuts up to consumption. An experiment was conducted on holding time for whole pieces of cooked ham before packaging and how this time affects final quality. The length of the holding time had a small influence on the product quality, but it was slightly reduced over time. For cold cuts, new gas mixtures have been tested at a plant, and the packaging process has been improved in several places. Attitudes to sliced, packaged cold cuts have been collected from attendants of focus groups and through a food store survey. Suggestions from these investigations will be used for testing new concepts for packaging and sale of cold cuts.. Consumer surveys on acceptance of new types of packages for dry cured ham were conducted, showing that thickness of slices and volume of packages are important to consumers. Sensory properties of sliced, packaged salami were studied under conditions which are common at retail display, with temperatures of 4 and 20 °C, both with and without light. The experiment showed that with packaging in modified atmospheres without oxygen present, taste and odour were not much affected by various display conditions regarding temperature and light. However, small simulated leakages in the packages resulted in discoloration and untypical taste and odour. Therefore, packages with salami with initial residual oxygen in the headspace should be stored in darkness until all oxygen is used up by the product. New gas mixtures hae been examined for the purpose of increasing the quality of sliced, packaged dry cured sausage over time under various temperatures with and without light. A group from the project has visited Germany for acquiring knowledge of ham packaging, including a test of high pressure processing of dry cured ham. Scientists from the Spanish institute IRTA has visited Nortura meat plants on several occations and given advice to the project work. The project group has been informed about the research activities at IRTA and visited a Spanish company that is producing and packaging cold cuts. The collaboration with experts from Spain and Germany will continue. A course in packaging of dry cured meat products was held for the staff at one of the Nortura packaging plants.

Ideen for dette prosjektet å kunne bevare smak, aroma og kvalitet i oppskåret kjøttpålegg slik at det oppleves som nyskåret av forbrukere over lenger tid. I kategorien kjøttpålegg finnes spekeskinke, spekepølse og varmebehandlet kjøttpålegg. Over 90 % av spekeskinke som omsettes i Norge i dag blir slicet og pakket av industri, ut fra et ønske fra forbruker om mindre porsjonspakker med spiseklare produkter. Denne varegruppen er ofte høyt priset, noe som øker forventningene til produktenes kvalitet hos forbruker. Kjøttpålegg har best smak og aroma kort tid etter slicing før lengre lagring i modifisert atmosfære eller vakuum. Det er behov for mer kunnskap på dette området for å øke forbrukernes aksept, få høyere omsetning av produktene og øke inntjening for aktører langs verdikjeden for kjøttpålegg. Prosjektet består av 5 arbeidspakker: 1) slicing, 2) pakking, 3)butikk, 4) analyser på sensorikk og flyktige komponenter og 5) formidling av resultater. Fem industripartnere deltar: Nortura (prosjektansvarlig), Multivac, Südpack, Yara Praxair og NorgesGruppen. To forskningsinstitutter er med i prosjektet: Nofima og IRTA.