The Defense Department is developing a shelf-stable meat that tastes less like a Slim Jim and more like chicken, beef or pork.

DoD’s Combat Feeding Directorate and the Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center have teamed with an Augusta, Ga.,-based company to produce meat that can sit on a shelf for two or three years and still remain soft and juicy, with a consistency similar to deli cold cuts.

The process involves grinding up a base meat such as chicken, pork or beef (vegetables are being tested as well) and passing it slowly through a continuous osmotic dehydration processor, removing water from the meat by osmosis, drawing it out with a solution of sugar and salt.

The result is a product that presses out of the dehydration machine looking like a giant Fruit Roll Up.

“The meat is extruded into a thin sheet on a sheet of parchment paper on a conveyer system. It is then pulled through an osmotic solution that extracts moisture,” explained Tom Yang, a senior food scientist at the directorate.

According to Yang, the process saves 50 percent more meat than traditional jerky processing. Another bonus? It contains one-third of the sodium of jerky, he added.Click here to read more

Photo by Geiers Sausage Kitchen