Abstract
The aim of the research was to verify the necessity of secondary fixation with osmium tetroxide in various types of meat products and evaluation of structural changes of products using different fixation procedures. The material for the study consisted of 11 types of meat products that were analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with two different methods of chemical fixation. The first method included the usual processing of biological samples: glutaraldehyde primary fixation, the use of a buffer, secondary fixation by osmium tetroxide (OsO4), buffer, and dehydration using ethanol of increasing concentrations. The second method comprised the glutaraldehyde primary fixation and dehydration using the ethanol of increasing concentrations only. The results unambiguously suggest that the main difference between these methods is in fixation and visibility of fat. Our analysis principally suggests that fixation of the product with OsO4 allows the tracking of all components (fat droplets, muscle fibers, connective tissue) in meat products. At the same time, our results also support the possibility that the secondary fixation can be skipped during the analysis, where the main objection is an observation of lipid-free structures of the meat products (e.g., connection between muscle and starches or spices) or meat products with an insignificant amount of fat.
Highlights
Meat and meat products are broadly consumed in the Czech Republic
The table shows that not all the meat products were suitable for processing using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) method
In this paper, we analyzed 11 meat products that were made in the Czech Republic
Summary
Meat and meat products are broadly consumed in the Czech Republic. In 2017, the consumption of meat and meat products was 80.3 kg per person, and in the year 2018, this number slightly increased [1]which is well above the EU average consumption—64.8 kg per person [2] and more than double the consumption compared to the world—30.6 kg [3].The Czech legislation comprises Decree No 69/2016 Coll. on requirements for meat, meat products, fishery and aquaculture products, and products thereof, eggs and products thereof, which apart from the basic definitions, composition and sensory requirements, divides meat products into two main groups—meat products and semi-finished meat products. Meat and meat products are broadly consumed in the Czech Republic. In 2017, the consumption of meat and meat products was 80.3 kg per person, and in the year 2018, this number slightly increased [1]. Which is well above the EU average consumption—64.8 kg per person [2] and more than double the consumption compared to the world—30.6 kg [3]. The meat products are further divided in seven subgroups: heat-treated, non-heat treated, non-heat treated for heat processing, long-life heat-treated, long-life fermented, cans, and semi-preserves [4]. The fact that meat products are widely popular in the Czech Republic plays into the hands of some of the producers, who make efforts to exchange more expensive components for cheaper substitutes.
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