Meat Products Handbook, written by Gerhard Feiner, provides a detailed guide to the ingredients and processing methods used by the industry around the world.

Feiner, a former factory and production manager, underpins the book with a good amount of the science and technology used to achieve product quality and safety.

Feiner has divided his comprehensive guide into three parts. The first section deals with the science behind the composition of meat and additives.

Protein, fat content, biochemistry, definitions, hydrocolloids, fillers, and colour are some of the subjects discussed in this highly technical section, which sets up the rest of the reference guide.

The second third of the book is devoted to the technologies and methods used in producing specific products.

This is a fascinating section of the book as Feiner has taken examples of recipes from around the world when discussing particular meat products, giving a broad overview of the development of different practices worldwide.

For example one sub-section on cured air-dried meat products runs through the manufacturing practices for such products as Parma ham, pancetta and Parma coppa hams in Italy, pastirma in Turkey, biltong in South Africa and rou gan and shafu in China.

The last third of the book deals with specific quality and safety issues in the meat processing industry, rounding up some of the common concerns in fighting back against pathogens.

The publication is targeted at research and development staff, and quality and production managers in meat processing.

The Meat Products Handbook is published by Woodhead Publishing, based in the UK.