Hot Processing of Pork Whole Muscle Cuts

During the past decade, we have all read and heard many reports concerning the hot processing of meat. The majority of these reports have dealt with the hot processing of beef. At the University of Georgia, we have been extensively involved in evaluating systems for the hot processing of pork. We believe that pork is a “natural” for hot processing since many of the inherent problems which have been associated with the hot processing of beef are non-existent in pork carcasses. The purpose of this review is to bring you up to date on the current state of hot processing whole muscle pork cuts, to give you an overview of the most recent work in this area and perhaps to give you some insight into the future of hot processing systems for pork. In the literature, the terms hot processing, hot boning and prerigor are often used interchangeably. The favorite term today seems to be either hot processing or accelerated processing. It is important to note that the definition for hot processing has actually changed through the years as we have advanced in our research studies in this area. In earlier work, hot processing would have been defined as the processing of meat prior to the onset of rigor mortis: however, as one views the research being conducted today, the term “hot processing” would probably be better defined as the processing of meat prior to chilling. As with any new system, there have been many advantages associated with hot processing and several of these are presented in Table 1. These advantages include a decreased amount of cooler space needed for this type of system, and the superior binding quality of meat proteins. Some studies have indicated that there will be a reduced labor requirement with this system, while other studies have stressed the importance of reduced energy consumption using a hot processing system. It has also been suggested that in-plant holding times for meat from hot processed