Fresh, unfrozen, boneless hams were purchased from a local
supplier and kept refrigerated until used. To simulate the injection of
brine but with more precise control over the amount of brine added,
the hams were first ground using a 6.35 mm plate. The ground ham was then separated into three 9.1 kg batches. Treatments (SC, PC, and C) were randomly assigned to each
batch. Each treatment was then added to a vacuum mixer, brine was added at
25% of the meat weight according to treatment, and was mixed for
5 min under vacuum. After mixing, ham was transferred to a rotary
vane vacuum stuffer and stuffed into 8.8 cm diameter fibrous casings. All three treatments were then hung on a smokehouse truck and cooked in a single truck
thermal processing oven . The final internal temperature of the product was 70 °C using a conventional ham cooking schedule. After thermal processing, the cooked hams
were chilled for 18 h at 0–2 °C. Cooked, chilled product yields were
measured by first recording raw product weights prior to cooking, and
by reweighing products after chilling. The hams were sliced after
chilling to a thickness of 6 mm. The slices were placed in barrier bags
with four slices per bag and vacuum packaged. The vacuum packaged ham
slices were then stored on shelves under 7.0 lx of Deluxe Cool White
florescent lighting (constant lighting for 24 h per day) at 2–4 °C.
Lights were suspended 61 cm above the packages during storage.