First, it allows them to dry out food quickly, increasing production. Second, it reduces spoilage because it removes excess water rapidly. Third, it preserves the quality of the food by preventing bacteria growth.
OUR CLIENT
One of our clients is a Brisbane butcher that age dries meat. They have been using the traditional salt method within their cold room for many years.
They contacted Humiscope and we designed their commercial drying room, then installed the HVAC equipment, specifically designed to their drying room requirements, within their pre-existing cold room - converting it into a dry cold room.
The store manager has been in the industry for over 40 years both in Brisbane, New South Wales and Victoria. He has been at the current Brisbane site for over six years and stated:
"This is by best set up I’ve ever seen. It has sped up our curing time and increased the quality of the meat.”
— Store Manager
THE CHALLENGE
Prior to contacting Humiscope, the Butcher used the traditional salt method to absorb the moisture. This method reduced the moisture some but required 25 kg of salt each week and the issues below remained:
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Additional cost in manpower to remove and replace the salt each week
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Still required an outer layer of meat to be cut
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Wet puddles caused by moisture build-up
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Corrosion of the room as the salt would eat into any metal
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Temperature and humidity fluctuations still occurred
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Safety concerns for staff (wet floors)
Condensation and moisture build up in a drying room used to dry age meat is not ideal. Different cuts of meat need to be dried for a minimum of 30 days. From 30 days on, mould forms on the outer layer of the meat and the butcher slices this outer layer. This reduces the weight of meat, therefore reducing the cost to market.
To optimally dry meat, a continued balance between water evaporation on the meat’s surface and extraction of water from the deeper layers is required.
Basically, the surface area cannot become too dry while there is still a high moisture content inside. Dry surfaces hinder further evaporation of moisture which leads to the meat not drying evenly and can cause spoilage.
SOLUTION
With any drying room for meat drying, the room should remain, as the name implies, dry. However, it is storing meat, so the room also has to remain very cold – below 4° C. This dual requirement provides challenges in combating the moisture created by refrigeration units.
The ideal conditions for meat drying lies in creating and maintaining warm, dry air of low humidity and minimal temperature fluctuations.
Using a Desiccant Dehumidifier within a cold drying room removes moisture and maintains a consistently low humidity. We chose an Air Dry 270 Desiccant Dehumidifier.
The improved conditions within the commercial drying room have significantly reduced the time required to age the meat without reducing any of the quality.
"The drying room conditions have improved the quality and taste of the meat and increased our yield to market as less meat needs to be trimmed during the aging process”.
— Store Manager
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