Beef Burger Case Study

The retail sale of beef burger is a big business. High meat prices prompted the meat producers in Egypt to produce various meat brands extended with non meat ingredients. However, maintaining the nutritional contribution, organoleptic and textural properties of such products a matter of challenge, which necessitates more effort to protect the product integrity, taste, flavor and textural sensory attributes (Chambers et al., 1993 and Risvik, 1994). Combination of meat items with other ingredients can be used to make beef burger. So the use of low quality ingredients in the processing yields low quality meat products (Pearson and Gillette, 1996). Also the quality and price of the finished product that is desired will largely control

Most of the meat products are rich in fats, but deficient in complex carbohydrates (Papadina and Bloukas, 1999).

Studies indicate that consumers are concerned about the high price and cholesterol content of beef burger (Menkhaus et al., 1993). And, to achieve healthy meat products, it is recommended to reduce high fat content to appropriate limits and increase the level of other substances with beneficial properties (Jo et al., 2003 and Arihara, 2006). Amino acid composition of meat products can play a significant role in meat identification; the ratios of amino acids Arginine, Histidine and Lysine for the investigated species of animals have been obtained. These ratios do not depend on age or weight of the animal (Irina, 2011).

It is of great importance to mention that amino acid and fatty acids fractionations can successfully be used for detection of meat adulteration by other animal tissues (Abd El Sadek, 2011).

The ash content is influenced by type of meat used, spices as well as binder and filler used (El- Sayed,

However, most microbial contaminants can gain access to certain meat products via raw materials, workers and equipment resulting in a public health hazard or affecting the shelf life of these products (Silva et al, 2002).

So the meat industry has continued to seek ways to increase the acceptability, lengthen the shelf life overall meat quality and safety of meat products (Selvan et al, 2007). One of the most commonly used preservation method is lowered storage temperature i.e., refrigeration and freezing (Ercolini et al., 2009). However, some special group of bacteria are able to grow at this reduced temperature (4ºC and above) and are collectively known as psychrophiles. (Williams and Dennis, 2008 and Jay, 2005), Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus species (Daniel, 1998), Pseudomonas sp, Carnobacterium maltaromaticum and C. divergens (Ercolini et al., 2009).

Various meat products have been associated with outbreaks caused by Salmonella, Shigella and E. coli (Cruickshank et al.,