The meat retailer handling meat continuously, seldom thinks of the product which he handles. To establish a certain standard for meat inspection services, the United States government has defined standards of meats and meat food products. Since no one in the industry has defined meat in as detailed a manner as the United States government, such definitions and standards have been reprinted for the benefit of the industry :
DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS OF MEATS AND MEAT FOOD PRODUCTS
The following definitions and standards for meats and the principal meat products were adopted by the Secretary of Agri-culture July 3, 1926, and published as Food Inspection Decision 205:
Flesh is any clean, sound, edible part of the striated muscle of an animal. The term “animal” as herein used, indicates a mammal, a fowl, a fish, a crustacean, a mollusk, or any other animal used as a source of food.
Meat is the properly dressed flesh derived from cattle, from swine, from sheep, or from goats, sufficiently mature and in good health at the time of slaughter, but is restricted to that part of the striated muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus, and does not include that found in the lips, in the snout, or in the ears ; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat, and the portions of bone, skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh and which may not have been separated from it in the process of dressing it for sale.
Fresh Meat is meat which has undergone no substantial change in character since the time of slaughter.
Beef is meat derived from cattle nearly 1 year of age, or older. Veal is meat derived from young cattle 1 year or less of age.
Mutton is meat derived from sheep nearly 1 year of age, or older.
Lamb is meat derived from young sheep nearly 1 year or less in age.
Pork is meat derived from swine. Venison is flesh derived from deer.
Meat By-Products are any clean sound and properly dressed edible parts, other than meat, which have been derived from one or more carcasses of cattle, of swine, of sheep, or of goats, sufficiently mature and in good health at the time of slaughter.
Prepared Meat is the clean, sound product obtained by subjecting meat to a process of comminuting, of drying, of curing, of smoking, of cooking, of seasoning, or of flavoring or to any combination of such processes.
Cured Meat is the clean, sound product obtained by subjecting meat to a process of salting, by the employment of dry common salt or of brine, with or without the use of one or more of the following: Sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sugar, honey, spice.
Dry Salt Meat is the prepared meat which has been cured by the application of dry common salt, with or without the use of one or more of the following : Sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sugar, a sirup, honey, spice ; with or without the injection into it of a solution of common salt to which may have been added one or more of the following: Sodium nitrite sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sugar, a sirup, honey.
Corned Meat is the prepared meat which has been cured by soaking in, with or without injecting into it, a solution of common salt, with or without one or more of the following, each in its proper proportion: Sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and with or without the use of spice.
Dried Meat is the clean, sound product obtained by subjecting the fresh meat of cured meat, to a process of drying, with or without the aid of artificial heat, until a substantial portion of the water has been removed.
Sweet Pickled Meat is the prepared meat which has been cured by soaking in, with or without injecting into it, a solution of common salt with sugar, a sirup and honey together, with one or more of the following, each in its proper proportion : Sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and with or without the use of spice.
Smoked Meat is the clean, sound product obtained by subjecting fresh meat or cured meat to the direct action of the smoke either of burning wood or of similar burning material.
Canned Meat is fresh meat or prepared meat, packed in hermetically sealed containers, with or without subsequent heating for the purpose of sterilization.
Hamburg Steak”Hamburg Steak” is comminuted fresh beef, with or without the addition of suet and/or seasoning.
Potted Meat, Deviled Meat is the clean, sound product obtained by comminuting and cooking fresh meat and/or of pre-pared meat, with or without spice, and is usually packed in hermetically sealed containers.
Sausage Meat is fresh meat or prepared meat, or a mixture of fresh meat and prepared meat, and is sometimes comminuted. The term “sauusage meat” is sometimes applied to bulk sausage containing no meat by-products.
Meat Food Products are any articles of food or any articles that enter into the composition of food which are not prepared meats but which are derived or prepared, in whole or in part, by a process of manufacture from any portion of the carcasses of cattle, swine, sheep or goats, if such manufactured portion be all, or a considerable and definite portion of the articles, except such preparations as are for medicinal purposes only.
Meat Loaf is the product consisting of a mixture of comminuted meat with spice and/or with cereals, with or without milk and/or eggs, pressed into the form of a loaf and cooked.
Pork Sausage is chopped or ground pork, with or without one or more of the following: Herbs, spice, common salt, sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sugar, a sirup, water, vinegar and may be fresh, dried smoked or cooked.
Brawn is the product made from chopped or ground and cooked edible parts of swine chiefly from the head, feet and/or legs, with or without the chopped or ground tongue.
Head Cheese Mock Brawn differs from brawn in that other meat and/or meat by-products are substituted, in whole or in part, for corresponding parts derived from swine.
Souse is the product consisting of meat and or meat by-products; after cooking, the mixture is commonly packed into containers and covered with vinegar.
Scrapple is the product consisting of meat and/or meat by-products; mixed with meal or the flour of grain, and cooked with seasoning materials, after which it is poured into a mold.
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