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Lawrie's Meat Science
118
Book reviews
Lawrie’s Meat Science Ed. R.A. Lawrie. Woodhead Publishing Ltd., Cambridge, England, reprint 2002 of sixth ed. 1998, xii+336 pages, soft cover, UK £235.00/US $55.00/ o55.00; ISBN1 85573 395 1; www.woodheadpublishing.com The sixth edition from 1998 of the famous classic in Meat Science has been reprinted. The first edition appeared in 1966. Its basic theme remains the central importance of biochemistry in understanding the production, storage, processing and eating quality of meat. The reader is taken from growth and the development of meat animals, through the conversion of muscle to meat, to the point of consumption. The text on the cover of the reprint of 2002 says ‘‘The new edition incorporates significant advances in meat science during the past ten years. This include the precise understanding of the structure of muscle, the computerized prediction of microbial spoilage patterns and the nature of proteolysis during postmortem ageing and the identification of the aberrations in DNA which lead to the production of exudative pork’’. This is a quotation from the 1998 edition and may be slightly misleading in so far as it convey to the reader the impression that the new edition (from 1998) is the present reprint from 2002. The references quoted in the volume dates as a matter of fact, to large extent, back to the decades after the middle of the past century. The volume certainly gives good information on the older data on Meat Science but less so on current knowledge and investigations in spite of what is maintained in the quoted preface. Section of the volume must be considered
outdated and should have been revised already in the 1998 edition. Let it be that the bacterial taxonomy in many places belongs to history, even in 1998, but part of the volume reflects philosophy and gives information since long outdated in our contemporary society. This applies, e.g. to sections on antibiotics where is explained techniques such as pre-slaughter injection of tetracycline’s into the animals as preservative, by spraying or by the use of impregnated wraps. Other chapters are not up-to-date. Blowing of vacuum packed meat, caused by psychrophilic Clostridia, quite a problem in many parts of the world, and well known long before the sixth edition, is not mentioned at all. The BSE, and its relation to vCJD, is not brought up to date, only partly explained by the publication year of the sixth edition. The E. coli O157:H7 is only very shortly mentioned much more information was already available in 1998. Meat Science gives a very good insight in the basic phenomenon of the subject but part of the volume is not up-to-date, and may be misleading with our contemporary knowledge. This was the case already when the sixth edition was published but has increased since then as a consequence of the rapid development of the subject. Students and professionals in the meat industry, catering for information in the volume, are advised to keep this in mind.
Niels Niels Skovgaard Jakob Knudsensvej 18, 3460 Birkerod, Denmark E-mail address: [email protected] Tel./fax: +45-45-813936 doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2003.08.003
Book reviews
Lawrie’s Meat Science Ed. R.A. Lawrie. Woodhead Publishing Ltd., Cambridge, England, reprint 2002 of sixth ed. 1998, xii+336 pages, soft cover, UK £235.00/US $55.00/ o55.00; ISBN1 85573 395 1; www.woodheadpublishing.com The sixth edition from 1998 of the famous classic in Meat Science has been reprinted. The first edition appeared in 1966. Its basic theme remains the central importance of biochemistry in understanding the production, storage, processing and eating quality of meat. The reader is taken from growth and the development of meat animals, through the conversion of muscle to meat, to the point of consumption. The text on the cover of the reprint of 2002 says ‘‘The new edition incorporates significant advances in meat science during the past ten years. This include the precise understanding of the structure of muscle, the computerized prediction of microbial spoilage patterns and the nature of proteolysis during postmortem ageing and the identification of the aberrations in DNA which lead to the production of exudative pork’’. This is a quotation from the 1998 edition and may be slightly misleading in so far as it convey to the reader the impression that the new edition (from 1998) is the present reprint from 2002. The references quoted in the volume dates as a matter of fact, to large extent, back to the decades after the middle of the past century. The volume certainly gives good information on the older data on Meat Science but less so on current knowledge and investigations in spite of what is maintained in the quoted preface. Section of the volume must be considered
outdated and should have been revised already in the 1998 edition. Let it be that the bacterial taxonomy in many places belongs to history, even in 1998, but part of the volume reflects philosophy and gives information since long outdated in our contemporary society. This applies, e.g. to sections on antibiotics where is explained techniques such as pre-slaughter injection of tetracycline’s into the animals as preservative, by spraying or by the use of impregnated wraps. Other chapters are not up-to-date. Blowing of vacuum packed meat, caused by psychrophilic Clostridia, quite a problem in many parts of the world, and well known long before the sixth edition, is not mentioned at all. The BSE, and its relation to vCJD, is not brought up to date, only partly explained by the publication year of the sixth edition. The E. coli O157:H7 is only very shortly mentioned much more information was already available in 1998. Meat Science gives a very good insight in the basic phenomenon of the subject but part of the volume is not up-to-date, and may be misleading with our contemporary knowledge. This was the case already when the sixth edition was published but has increased since then as a consequence of the rapid development of the subject. Students and professionals in the meat industry, catering for information in the volume, are advised to keep this in mind.
Niels Niels Skovgaard Jakob Knudsensvej 18, 3460 Birkerod, Denmark E-mail address: [email protected] Tel./fax: +45-45-813936 doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2003.08.003