In the last years, the increment of the demand of ready-to-eat
products has encouraged the application of new food processing
technologies; among them the sous vide cooking system. This system
is based on the application of a controlled cooking-pasteurization
process to raw material (or raw material with intermediate foods)
vacuum packaged in a heat-stable pouch or container (Hauben,
1999). After the thermal treatment, the product must be rapidly
cooled at temperatures around 0–3 °C, and under this condition it
could be stored for 3 to 5 weeks before reheating and consumption
(Nyati, 2000; Vaudagna et al., 2002). This technology has emerged
as an interesting alternative to expand the current beef-based products
market (Garcia-Segovia, Andrés-Bello, & Martínez-Monzo, 2007;
Resurreccion, 2003), and its commercial success depends on the quality
and the shelf-life of the manufactured goods. However, the most
important disadvantage of this technology, when it is applied to
meat products, is the retention — inside the package — of the juices