Patent ID: 8080270

Claim:
A process for converting animal trimmings to a meat product comprising: (a) heating the animal trimmings in a heat exchanger to a temperature sufficient to liquefy fat in the animal trimmings and less than a temperature to significantly cook the animal trimmings thereby forming a heated slurry; (b) separating the heated slurry into a solids stream and a liquids stream, the solids stream comprising an increased weight percent of protein compared with the weight percent of protein in the heated slurry, and the liquids stream containing an increased weight percent of tallow and water soluble proteins compared with the weight percent of tallow and water soluble protein in the heated slurry; (c) separating the liquids stream into a heavy phase and a light phase, the heavy phase comprising an increased weight percent of moisture and water soluble proteins compared to the weight percent of moisture and water soluble proteins in the liquids stream, and the light phase containing an increased weight percent of tallow compared with the weight percent of tallow in the liquids stream; and (d) combining the solids stream from the heated slurry and the heavy phase from the liquids stream thereby forming a meat product.