Abstract
The necessity of tenderizing meat for the elderly and complete denture wearers was apparent after evaluating the influence of the hardness of the meat samples on the ease of feeding persons with different chewing capability. Meat samples were tenderized by soaking in a sodium hydrogen carbonate solution and then heat treated by vacuum cooking. The hardness of the meat samples decreased with increasing concentration of sodium hydrogen carbonate in the soaking solution. A sensory test showed that the ease of feeding of persons increased with decreasing hardness of the meat samples, while hydration of the meat protein was increased. The apparent hardness of the meat samples increased with decreasing compression speed, so that the chewing rhythm of complete denture wearers and of the elderly was slower than that of dentate subjects. The results indicate that meat was not sufficiently masticatable as a food for the elderly and the complete denture wearer as compared with the dentate subjects since the compression speed depended on the apparent hardness of the meat samples in this study. The overall results reveal that tenderizing meat by sodium hydrogen carbonate soaking made it easier to feed the elderly and the complete denture wearers.
