Advances in Meat Research: Volume 1 Electrical Stimulation

The Advances in Meat Research series has arisen from a perceived need for a comprehensive coverage of certain topics that are pertinent to meat and meat products. We, the editors, have made the decision to concentrate on a series of related topics that are deemed to be impor- tant to an understanding of meat, both fresh and processed. It is our sincere hope that by focusing upon areas related to meat science that researchers who contribute to this volume can not only update those involved in academia and industry but also promulgate facts that may lead to solutions of meat industry problems and aid in improving the efficiency of various associated industrial processes. We have chosen to devote Volume 1 to electrical stimulation in view of the widespread interest in its meat industry applications. Although the classical study by A. Harsham and Fred Deatherage was published in 1951, it was not accepted by the meat industry owing to a number of factors that are discussed in the text. These investigators did, however, lay the groundwork for modern electrical stimulation of carcasses by their detailed studies on the effects of varying current, voltage, fre- quency, wave forms, and time. The basic information provided by these workers saved a great amount of experimentation by those who subse- quently "rediscovered" electrical stimulation.