FAT CONTENT OF SAUSAGES

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29912, 28 August 1962, Page 22

FAT CONTENT OF SAUSAGES

Three Methods Of Determination Three ways of telling how much fat there is in a aausage. without so much as sticking a fork into it, are described in the “New Scientist.” One way involves a microwave absorption moisturemeter designed originally to measure the moisture content of bricks. Microwaves are absorbed strongly by fat, because of its relatively high moisture content, but only very slightly by lean meat. Another method is to weigh the sausage in air and then in water. Fat meet has a lower density than lean, so the more fat there is in the sausage the less apparent weight it has when weighed in water. The third method makes use of the fact that a sausage made of lean meat is radioactive. whereas one containing only fat is not Radioactive potassium-40, formed naturally in the atmosphere through the impact of cosmic rays, is present in a fixed proportion to stable potas-sium-39 in meat; but there is very little potassium of any kind in fat meat, so that the radioactivity of a meat sample is a good guide to its lean content. The test is made with a scintillation counter.