Meat Unwinding Techniques in Kilishi Processing in North Cameroon: Constraints and Innovations

Slicing and low technological quality of meat constitute the major technological constraints of kilishi manufacturing process (slices of meat, dried or smoked, seasoned with a cocktail of ingredients and grilled or not on firewood). The unwinding process remains painful and requires skill coupled with proven dexterity in its production. It was to minimize these constraints that a comparative study of three unwinding modes: along the muscle, the 15cmx5cmx5cm and the successive rolling (innovative method) was conducted to know the best unwinding method on two muscles from a zebu goudali, male, brown dress and aged four years,: Round and thick rib on five steps aging period (rigor-mortis, 24h, 48h, 72h and 96h). The results obtained, showed that meat from the slaughterhouse reached the level of the kilishi units in Maroua-Cameroun after 199±8.4 min in rigor-mortis state and it deserved to be aging at least 24h to improve its firmness and from 48h to facilitate unwinding. The unwinding techniques were significantly different (p≤0.05) and successive rolling appeared as the best unwinding mode which reduced the unwinding time of 500g of meat from 15.61 ± 0.57min to 5.88 ± 0.2 min for round and 14.85 ± 0.65 min at 5.58 ± 0.21 min for thick rib during rigor mortis. These times failed after 96h of aging at 4 ± 2°C at 3.16 ± 0.15 min for the Round at 2.48 ± 0.38 min for Thick rib. Aging alone and / or combined with successive rolling improved the firmness of the meat and significantly reduced the unwinding time. The successive rolling feet for all types of muscles joined, with aging contributed to increase the number of muscles of the carcass that had to be used in the processing of kilishi.