Advanced meat recovery

Low-pressure meat separator processing chicken.

Advanced meat recovery (AMR) is a slaughterhouse deboning process by which the last traces of skeletal muscle meat are removed from animal bones after the primal cuts have been carved off manually. The machinery used in this process separates meat from bone by scraping, shaving, or pressing the meat from the bone without breaking or grinding the bone. AMR meat typically is used as an ingredient in products requiring further processing, such as hot dogs. Unlike mechanically separated meat, AMR meat is comparable in appearance, texture, and composition to meat trimmings and similar meat products derived by hand.[1][2]

In the US, products produced by advanced meat recovery machinery can be labeled using terms associated with hand-deboned product (i.e., "beef", "pork", "beef trimmings", etc.) USDA regulations for procurement of frozen fresh ground beef products state that "Beef that is mechanically separated from bone with automatic deboning systems, advanced lean (meat) recovery (AMR) systems or powered knives, will not be allowed".[3]

The equivalent technology is known as "low pressure mechanical meat separation" in the European Union, and its product governed as a subset of mechanically separated meat.[2] The product was formerly known as desinewed meat (DSM).[4]

  1. ^ "Scientific Opinion on the public health risks related to mechanically separated meat (MSM) derived from poultry and swine". EFSA Journal. 11 (3). March 2013. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2013.3137.
  2. ^ a b "Mechanically separated meat and meat structure". New Food Magazine.
  3. ^ "USDA Purchases of Ground Beef Items Frozen Technical Requirements Schedule – GB-2003 / USDA 29may03". Archived from the original on 2003-06-08. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).