The use of a very small business-scale oven to enhance quality of “ready–to-eat” Beef Jerky

The aim of this study was to enhance the quality of traditional ready-to-eat beef jerky using a very small business scale (VSB) oven “Rob-Han” 12 racks. The experiment was designed in a Completely Randomized Design consisted of 6 roasting treatments using a laboratory oven (15 min.) and using a Rob Han oven at 5 various times (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 min.). The results showed that the use of the oven (Rob-Han) significantly affected the chemical qualities of beef jerky i.e. relative humidity, water activity, water content, and protein content. However, the treatments did not significantly affect the ash content of beef jerky. All of the heating time treatments in the oven (Rob-Han) were able to reduce total microbes 2 log cycles (into less than 1,0x10 3 CFU/gram). Furthermore, coliform and fungi were undetected on agar media of all treatments, therefore they were safe for consumption. Based on the qualities and shelf-life parameters, the best treatment was the roasting for 20 minutes at 135 °C using the oven (Rob-Han) 12 rack, which resulted in beef jerky with a quality similar to that produced by roasting in the laboratory scale oven Memmert.