991024 Lab Has “Blast” Tenderizing MeatOctober 9, 1999Buena Vista, VA - Hydrodyne Inc., a Puerto Rico-based research company, has discovered a way to immerse packaged, leathery cuts of meat into water, send a shock wave through it by detonating a small explosive charge and -- voila! -- melt-in-your-mouth meat. Now, the company is on the verge of signing a deal with a major meat processor that will bring this technology to market. “This method will essentially make lower grade meats more valuable than they were before,” Hydrodyne president Stanford Klapper said. “The consumer will be able to pay a lower price for meat, but still get higher grade quality.” For instance, Klapper said, a low-quality steak that may cost $1.99 per pound in a supermarket today may cost $2.49 after it's been through the Hydrodyne process. But that cut of meat will be as tasty and tender as a $5.99 per pound strip steak. The Hydrodyne method -- tested in a Buena Vista lab -- works by lowering a metal basket filled with about 400 pounds of vacuum-packed meat into a sealed, water-filled vat anchored in concrete. Then, an explosive charge the size of an orange is detonated from above, sending supersonic shockwaves rebounding back and forth through the meat. The shockwaves tear certain fibers that bind muscle tissue, thus tenderizing the meat without changing its appearance or flavor. The Hydrodyne process requires no government approval because it does not penetrate the meat packaging or introduce any foreign substances into the meat, Klapper said. The new method will shave days, perhaps months off the time it takes to tenderize meat. Hydrodyne's staff occasionally tests meat after it's blasted. A bottle of steak sauce sits in the fridge as an aid to the testers. “It's good. I definitely can tell the difference,” said staff member Ron Smith. Surplus meat is donated to the Natural Bridge Zoo for tiger food. The Hydrodyne process was invented by John Long, 79, a retired nuclear weapons designer who holds several patents besides the one for Hydrodyne. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton Co., has exclusive rights to design, build, operate and maintain Hydrodyne equipment in meat processing plants worldwide. Long came up with the idea for using explosives to tenderize meat in the 1960s. Morse Solomon, research leader of the USDA's meat science lab in Beltsville, Md., said the Hydrodyne process has the potential to revolutionize the meat industry. The Maryland lab has a small prototype of the Hydrodyne system and has conducted its own tests through a research and development partnership. Hydrodyne officials say the process also works on pork chops, chicken and lamb. But some people in the meat trade still need some convincing. “It sounds exciting, but I'd have to see it to believe it,” said William O'Brien, whose family owns O'Brien Meats in Salem. “I guess it's possible in this new age we're in now. My father was leery about cooking meat on an electric stove back in his day. I wonder what he'd think about microwaves and now this?”
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