Design of a new laboratory tumbling simulator for chunked meat: Analysis, reproduction and measurement of mechanical treatment

•Kinetics and rates of deformation due to muscle fall were assessed from video films.•Laboratory tumbling simulator was built to control and measure muscle deformation.•Deformation rates in industrial tumblers of various sizes are now reproducible.•Energy dissipated by deformation is 5–10% of initial potential energy.

Chunked meat is tumbled in large rotating drums, which is known to impact process yield and product quality. These impacts are mainly due to hundreds of falls, but no information is available on the actual mechanics involved. Both kinetics and rates of deformation were estimated from slow-motion films (1000 frames/s) of two types of ham muscles falling, duration and rate of muscle deformation varied from 20 to 120 ms and from a few % to 40%, respectively. A lab-scale device was built to reproduce these mechanical treatments and simulate what happens in industrial tumblers of various designs and sizes. Maximum force, deformation rate and dissipated energy of each deformation were calculated from force versus strain recordings. Dissipated energy was about 100 mJ or 500 mJ when deformation rate was 12 or 30%, respectively.