Vacuum-Cooked Meat Patties for Precise Portioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food products for babies, the elderly, and those with chewing or swallowing difficulties lack nutritional balance, taste, and precision in portion size, with industrial products tasting bland and generating waste, while homemade options are imprecise and risk contamination.
Innovation Solution
A process involving vacuum cooking, pasteurization, and freezing of meat-based foods with a meat content of 95% or higher, without added salt or fat, to create a cohesive-fragile consistency that can be easily portioned and adapted for consumption, ensuring nutritional value and safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If industrial sterile canning technology is used, then nutritional balance and safety are improved, but taste deteriorates and portion precision is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The industrial batch processing is segmented into individual single-portion packages. Each portion is separately vacuum-packaged and processed, allowing precise control over each portion's cooking parameters and meat content, while maintaining the safety benefits of industrial processing. This segmentation enables both sanitary safety through controlled processing and taste quality through precise portion management.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the processing parameters by using vacuum packaging during cooking and pasteurization steps. This parameter change allows lower cooking temperatures and shorter times while maintaining safety, thereby preserving taste quality. The vacuum environment prevents moisture loss and maintains meat texture, resolving the contradiction between safety and taste.
2Ease of manufacture
If homemade grinding of meat pieces is performed, then taste and nutritional balance are improved, but portion precision and safety deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The meat portions are pre-cooked, pre-minced to very fine consistency (less than 2mm), and pre-packaged in precise quantities before distribution. This preliminary action ensures that when the consumer receives the product, the portion quantity is already precisely controlled and the meat is ready for immediate use, eliminating the need for home cooking and grinding while maintaining taste quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The product is designed to be ready-to-use with precise portions already prepared. The consumer simply needs to thaw and heat the pre-packaged portions without performing any grinding or portioning actions. The product serves itself by providing pre-measured, pre-processed meat portions that maintain both taste quality and portion precision.
3Quantity of substance
If large quantities of food are cooked at home, then sufficient quantity is obtained, but waste increases due to imprecise portioning
Solution Approach 1:
The total food quantity is segmented into multiple single-portion packages, each containing a precise amount of meat-based food. This segmentation allows the consumer to use only the required portion for each meal, eliminating waste from cooking large quantities and then discarding unused portions. The segmented packaging provides both sufficient total quantity and precise portion control.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention eliminates the need to discard unused portions by providing single-portion packaging. Each portion is designed to be used completely, and any unused portions remain in their sealed packaging for future use. This recovering approach prevents food waste by allowing portions to be stored and used later without compromising quality or requiring disposal.
4Shape
If meat is ground at home after cooking, then desired consistency is achieved, but risk of bone or fish bone contamination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The meat is thoroughly cooked and minced to very fine consistency (less than 2mm) during the industrial processing stage before packaging. This preliminary action ensures that any potential bone fragments or contaminants are removed or rendered safe during the controlled cooking process, eliminating the risk of bone contamination that would occur with home grinding of cooked meat.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses disposable single-portion vacuum packages that are sealed and processed under controlled conditions. This disposable packaging system ensures that the meat remains free from contamination during storage and transport, and the sealing prevents any introduction of foreign substances, thereby eliminating bone contamination risks associated with home processing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a nutritionally balanced, easily consumable, and safe meat-based food product with precise portioning, maintaining high meat content and preventing waste, while ensuring sanitary safety and adaptability to individual needs.
Implementation Method 1
a first vacuum cooking heat treatment, in a packaging in an atmosphere saturated with humidity, is applied to said foods
Implementation Method 2
the first cooking heat treatment of step 1 is carried out in a cooking cell, at an ambient temperature of 60 to 95° C. for 30 to 60 minutes
Implementation Method 3
a second heat treatment of pasteurization in an atmosphere saturated with humidity
Implementation Method 4
the second pasteurization heat treatment of stage 2 is carried out in a cooking cell at an ambient temperature of 60 to 95° C. for approximately 15 to 30 minutes
Implementation Method 5
the foods having undergone the second pasteurization heat treatment in the individual portions are quickly cooled and frozen to -18°C in the individual cells of the container
Implementation Method 6
repackaged in different cells of a container, individually wrapped, under partial or total vacuum
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The invention concerns a method for preparing meat-based foodstuffs. According to the invention, the method comprises the following successive steps: • step 1: a first vacuum cooking heat treatment, in a packaging in a moisture saturated atmosphere, is applied to foodstuffs having a meat content equal to or greater than 95%, and without the addition of salt, • step 1.1: the foodstuffs having undergone the first vacuum cooking heat treatment are broken down to form elements smaller than two millimetres, in the pasty state • step 2: the foodstuffs in the pasty state are repackaged in different receptacles of a container, packaged individually, in a partial or total vacuum, in order to undergo a second pasteurisation heat treatment in a moisture saturated atmosphere, • step 3: the foodstuffs having undergone the second pasteurisation heat treatment in individual portions are rapidly cooled and frozen to -18°C in the individual receptacles of the container. The invention also concerns the packaging of foodstuffs produced using this method.