THE EFFECT OF COOKING ON THE CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF MEAT-PRODUCTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FAT LOSS

The chemical composition and energy content of four product categories (sausages, restructured steaks, burgers and minced beef) were determi ned before and after cooking. Two cooking methods were used for each p roduct category: sausages and burgers were fried or grilled, restructu red steaks were grilled or cooked in an oven whilst mince was either b oiled or lightly fried and then boiled to simulate domestic practice. Based on an initial 100 g of product and excluding the lowfat products included in the survey, the average weights after cooking were 78, 73 , 72 and 70 g for the sausages, restructured steaks, burgers and mince d beef, respectively, average fat contents before and after cooking we re 22 and 17 g for the sausages, 17 and 14 g for the restructured stea ks, 25 and 16 g for the beef burgers, and 19 and 7 g for the mince; an d average energy contents before and after cooking were 1215 and 1016 kJ for the sausages, 958 and 815 kJ for the restructured steaks, 1244 and 906 kJ for the burgers and 1009 and 544 kJ for the mince. For a gi ven product type, cooking method was relatively unimportant, the cooki ng loss, fat loss and energy content of the cooked product being more dependent on product formulation and manufacturing process. The survey included a lowfat sausage, a lowfat burger, a lean mince and an extra lean mince with fat contents of 8.7, 7.5, 12.4 and 5.2%, respectively . Overall weight losses during cooking were similar to standard produc ts, though low fat products lost proportionally more water and less fa t. Frying resulted in a slight gain in fat content for the low,fat sau sages and burgers, based on an initial 100 g of product, though fried low fat products still had lower fat and energy contents than standard products. It is argued that national consumption figures should take into account the losses that occur during cooking to avoid overestimat ing fat and energy intake levels. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.