MEAT FOR EXPORT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19761, 12 April 1926, Page 15

MEAT FOR EXPORT.

REFRIGERATION PROBLEM. AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTS. For some years past the chief problem of the Australian exporter of meat has been the elucidation of the best method of freezing or chilling the goods shipped overseas, and many theories as to the best methods of handling the meat output have been advanced. Few of them have possessed any practical value, am the failures have cost the country much, both in cash" and in prestige overseas (says the Melbourne Age). About two years ago the Australian National Research Council, which includes representatives of the Australian -Meat Council, in conjunction with the Institute of Science and Industry, invited Dr W. J. Young and Mr Vickery, a research scholar at the Melbourne University, to experiment on meats with the intention of discovering ths most suitable method of preserving meat for export to England. Recently, before the joint annual meeting of Melbourne University Chemical Society and the Society of Chemical Industry of Victoria, Dr Young spoke on some scientific aspects of the refrigeration of meat, discussing the report which has been submitted to the Australian National Research Council. The problem of the refrigeration of meat, he said, was very complicated, and one which lent itself to much careful study. The first experiments with meat were carried out with small pieces of beef, and later when experiments had progressed—with pieces of commercial size. With the smaller pieces they were placed in rectangular tins of varying thickness, these varying thicknesses regulating the speed of freezing. Meat was frozen in different ways —in air where a temperature of minus ISdeg centigrade was reached, in liquid air, where minus 193 deg centigrade was used, and in calcium chloride, in the intermediate stage, where a temperature of minus 36deg centigrade was reached. It was found that meat frozen in brine attained a lower temperature than that in air, and that fast frozen meat was more damaged than that frozen slowly. For ascertaining the temperature a thermo couple which could be placed in any piece of meat had been devised. In order to estimate the drip or “weeping” from meat in its various chilled stages, blotting paper —which- was afterwards weighed—was used. In order to distinguish between muscle fibre and frozen crystals in the meat a tetrological microscope had been used. It had been found that after 45 minutes’ freezing the tissues of the meat had become distorted, and that 6G minutes' freezing produced further distortion. Mutton,. it was found, froze much better than beef, and when our mutton was landed in London it had lost very little of its virtue by “weeping.” The actual damage to the meat was done in the freezing. if meat were frozen quickly and thawed slowly more water and jess “weeping” and nitrogen was lost. With two pieces of meat thawed at different times, it was found that a piece thawed in eighteen hours lost .7 per cent, of “weeping,” whilst a piece thawed in 24 hours lost 3 per cent. When meat was stored after thawing it was found that at Ideg centigrade some of the “weeping” was absorbed. The age of the beast had much to do with the proper treatment of meat, as young beef froze well, whereas aged ox, that was, a beast over six or seven years of age, gave bad results. The rate at which the meat was frozen was most important. If the meat were taken to a very low temperature it made the change less reversible. The chief thing seemed to be the rate at which the freezing took place. With quarters or buttocks of beef it was, he considered, necessary to use some means which would give a temperature of minus COdeg centigrade—which, he thought, could be obtained with a calcium chloride bath—a method which seemed commercially impracticable at present. However, it seemed possible that a combination of quick freezing and slow thawing could be obtained so as to reduce separation by “weeping” to a minimum. In answer to a questioner, who stated that one shipment of Australian chilled meat had sold at Smithfield Market, London, at only 4d per lb less than Argentine beef. Dr Young said that He could make no definite statement until he had seen the results of at least 100 shipments. In Argentina they chilled 04 per cent., this being absolutely prime beef, and froze the rest, which was of poor quality. Australia’s problems were different from those of the Argentine, as Australian meat had a voyage of over 60 days from the port of lading to the London markets.