The influence of meat muscle structural properties on mechanical and texture parameters of canned ham

• Changes in the structure of porcine muscles in the course of canned ham production were investigated.
• Injection and plasticisation leads to the loosening of muscle fibres as well as to partial extraction of muscle and connective tissue proteins.
• Musculus quadriceps was characterised by a higher dynamics of changes in fibre structure in comparison with the semimembranosus muscle.
• Canned hams manufactured from both kinds of muscles exhibited similar mechanical-rheological and texture properties.

The aim of this study was to determine the relationships between mechanical-rheological properties as well as muscle texture parameters and their physico-chemical and structural characteristics in the course of different production phases of canned ham. Their mechanical-rheological, texture as well as physico-chemical and structural properties were analysed at each phase of the performed experiments. Injection and plasticisation in both kinds of ham muscles caused loosening of muscle fibres and partial extraction of muscle and connective tissue proteins. It should be emphasised that musculus quadriceps was characterised by a higher dynamics of changes in the fibre structure in comparison with the semimembranosus muscle. This found its expression in the analysed mechanical-rheological and texture as well as physico-chemical parameters. However, as a result of pasteurisation, values of all the analysed texture determinants, i.e. hardness, shearing force, cohesiveness and gumminess failed to exhibit statistically significant differences between one another in the case of both of the examined muscles.