Beef Sausage

Photo of sausage roll In this section:

Marketability
Flavour Profiles
Applications
Fresh Beef Sausage Process
Processing Steps
Expected Shelf Life

Definition:

Boneless beef, comminuted and formed, extruded into natural or collagen casings producing links or coils of specified and/or varied sizes. May be fresh, cured, smoked, cooked, preserved, dried and fermented.

Marketability

As a retail category, sausages represent a $205,000,000 dollar market opportunity of which beef is currently only 12.4%. With the introduction of beef sausage the opportunity for growth is avaliable.
*A.C. Nielsen
Fresh sausages are ready to cook and easy to prepare.
Versatile and convenient, BBQ, sauté, oven bake, add to your favourite sauces. May be consumed for breakfast, lunch or dinner as an alternative to the more traditional blends of sausages.
Delicious, easy and convenient to prepare from fresh or frozen state.
Popular consumer products include breakfast sausages, links or dinner coil.

Beef sausages may be manufactured from source specific beef for improved quality and flavour.
Use source specific in-house trimmings for greater profitability.
Beef sausages are nutrient rich and an excellent source of protein.
Juicy and tender when cooked. Sausage in a casing and through ingredient technology/extension retains more moisture with less shrinkage when fully cooked.
May be prepared in coils for mass feeding requirements or in links for single serve applications.
Flavourful with a tender, juicy texture.
Can be made available in a wide range of contemporary and trend setting flavours.

Flavour Profiles

Custom meat blocks can be easily formulated to create your own specialty blends. Current themes are:

Thai – chilies, lemon grass, coconut, cilantro, fish sauce, soya

New Italian Flavours – roasted garlic, sun dried tomato, roasted vegetables, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil

Southwestern – garlic, green chilies, cilantro, tomatoes, cumin

Traditional European – provolone, beer, red peppers, mushrooms, cabbage, leak

Applications

Fresh Meat Counter

Home Meal Replacement

Hospitals

Nursing Homes

Schools

Family Restaurants

Catering

Buffets

Sandwich QSR

Colleges / Universities

Barbeques

Fresh Beef Sausage Process

Suggested Meat Block & Formulation:	%

Chuck roll 85% C/L	26.2
Frank/Plate Trim 60% C/L	52.4
Water	15.5
Spice unit	5.9
Total	100.0

Ingredients: Beef, water, toasted wheat crumb, salt, dehydrated onion, dextrose, spice, maltodextrin, disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate.

Other source specific material (i.e. sirloin/round) may be used when formulating finished product. Blending various meat block combinations of 90's, 85's and 50/50 C/L (chemical lean) will achieve desired finished fat specification.

Processing Steps

Ideal grind sequence:
Flank/Plate trim 3mm grinding plate followed by Chuck roll at 6mm grinding plate.

Assembly procedures:

Ground meat was combined with ice/water and spices in the paddle mixer for 2 minutes.
Stuffed on the Handtmann stuffer in Nippi #190 Collagen casings.
Beef sausage coil linked on a "Z" linker using appropriate cam size for specified end weight and length.

Approximate raw formulation chemistry:

Fat: 24.0 % (+/- 1)
Protein: 11.5 % (+/- 1)
Moisture: 51.0 % (+/- 1)

Expected Shelf Life

Expected shelf life of fresh, processed sausage under ideal conditions is approximately 8 days in an over-wrap tray. For extended colour a modified atmosphere package using a combination of 80% oxygen and 20% carbon dioxide will help to maximize appearance but does not necessarily extend the allowable microbiological standards (see below).

Excerpt from Chapter 5, Section 5.4.2 of the Meat Hygiene Manual of Procedures

Interpretation of laboratory test results. Figures represent estimated number of organisms per gram.

			Cooked	Cured	Raw	Cooked	Cured	Raw
	n	c	m	m	m	M	M	M

TAC	5	2	10⁴	NA	10⁵	10⁵	NA	10⁷
*S. Aureus*	5	2	20	100	100	100	1000	1000
*E.Coli*	5	2	20	50	100	50	100	500
Coliforms	5	2	50	100	500	100	500	1000
Salmonella	5	0	0	0	NA	0	0	NA
*L. mono.*	5	0	0	0	NA	0	0	NA

n = number of subsamples tested
c = number of subsamples which may exceed the number of bacteria indicated under m.
m = number of bacteria which should not be exceeded by more than c subsamples
M = Max. number of bacteria which should not be exceeded in any one subsample
NA = not applicable
TAC = total aerobic count

The above values are maximum retail levels. At the producer level fresh product should have a TAC one log lower and there should be no S. aureus or E. coli on heated products.

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