JOMALOFACRICIIMAIRESEARCH 



Vol. XVII Washington, D. C, April 15, 1919 No. i 



MEAT EXTRACTS, THEIR COMPOSITION AND IDENTI- 

 FICATION 



By James A. Emery, Senior Biochemist, and Robert R. HenlEy, Biochemist, Bio- 

 chemic Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture 



INTRODUCTION 



The historical aspect of meat extract has been presented so extensively 

 in the numerous articles which from time to time have appeared in the 

 literature that it is not considered necessary in this paper more than to 

 refer to that phase of the question. As is well known, this product, now 

 so generally used, owes its origin to I^iebig, the chemist whose process 

 for its preparation, as modified by Pettenkofer, has been in use in one 

 of the large commercial houses ever since 1864. 



tn the method of preparation as originally described, muscle tissue 

 alone was used for extraction, but in more recent years various influential 

 factors, the foremost being the utiHzation of waste products, have caused 

 many of the manufacturers to adapt the principles of the original process 

 to the preparation of extracts from edible portions of the carcass other 

 than true muscle tissue. Livers, spleens, hearts, cured-meat cook water,* 

 roast-beef soak water, and bones to which more or less meat is adherent, 

 are among the materials now employed, and the food analyst of to-day 

 is confronted with many difficulties in his attempts to establish the 

 identity of an extract under examination. 



This investigation, therefore, was undertaken with the view of obtain- 

 ing information regarding possible differences in composition of the 

 various extracts that might be applied in formulating methods for their 



identification. 



PREPARATION OF EXTRACTS 



COMMERCIAL METHOD 



Extracts of the various tissues and organs, such as chuck and plate 

 (representing true muscle tissue), cured meat, bones (with and without 

 adherent meat), hearts, livers, spleens, etc., were prepared, under the 

 direct supervision of one of the authors, in the meat-extract department 

 of one of the large commercial estabhshments. The method of prepara- 

 tion in each instance was that ordinarily used in the establishment, and 



• Extracts were also prepared from the pickle in which the meats were cured, but the use of this material 

 has been discontinued. 



Journal of Agricidtural Research. Vol. XVII. No. i 



Washington, D. C. Apr. is, 1919 



rq Key No. A-47 



(l) 



