By Eben van Tonder and Christa van Tonder-Berger, 3 July 2026

Introduction

A friend working in South African meat production shared a recent review titled Hybrid plant based meat alternatives structured via co extrusion, published in Trends in Food Science and Technology in 2025 by Villacís Chiriboga and colleagues at Chalmers University of Technology, Henan University of Technology, and Deakin University [47]. The review surveys research that combines plant proteins with meat, fish, insects, algae, fungi, and cell cultured animal cells to build a fibrous, meat like texture from ingredients that cannot produce one on their own. Cricket powder is blended into soy protein isolate to help it form a fibrous structure. Beef bone hydrolysate is blended into soy protein and wheat gluten purely to put a meaty aroma back into a plant based product. Astaxanthin extraction residue is added in fractions of a percent so the product resembles the colour of beef sirloin [47].

Does this make sense? Why does an industry take a chicken, a pig, or a fish, each one already complete and structurally correct, and reconstruct fibre, colour, and aroma from soy, algae, insects, and bone hydrolysate, one borrowed property at a time. Meat already has the texture and the aroma these methods try to build. The review itself lists phase separation, off flavours, and thermal instability as unresolved problems [47]. Why was the animal’s own tissue, which already has every one of these properties, set aside in the first place. The question is more important in a country such as Nigeria, which relies on imports for a large share of its processed meat supply.

Meat is the cheapest, most complete, and most biologically available protein source known to human diets. Animal proteins routinely score at or near the maximum on the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score, because they supply a complete profile of essential amino acids the human gut absorbs efficiently, while plant proteins rarely match this score [28]. Meat extenders entered mainstream production because meat became scarce, not because extenders improved the product. Armour and Company first used the term meat alternatives in a 1919 advertisement, during a meat shortage that followed the First World War [44]. During the Second World War, American dietitians and national meat councils promoted meat extending recipes that combined meat with potatoes, rice, gelatin, and other fillers during rationing [45]. The United States military specified twenty percent hydrated soy protein in ground beef purchases from 1983 onward [46]. The habit continued through institutional procurement and a flavouring industry that found a market in disguising the taste of extended products.

The most economical and functionally complete formulation requires only the animal itself. Skin is collagen and fat bound together, already part of the carcass, not a foreign addition to it. Sourcing starch from a plant and protein isolate from a bean, while the animal already had its own binding and water holding materials, reverses a relationship that should run the other way.

Everything needed to produce sausages that compete with imported mechanically deboned meat based products from countries such as Brazil, Spain, and Italy is already present inside Nigeria. MDM itself can not be imported, but sausages made from it can. What is missing is not a raw material. The ban on MDM itself is not even the problem. What is missing is systems, structure, and know how, together with a small number of correctly chosen ingredients. Nigeria already has what it needs to produce some of the healthiest processed meat products available anywhere for a large and growing population, without any need for imported food additives.

Origins Global Meats specialises in moving factories away from imported functional ingredients, toward a system built entirely from meat and connective tissue protein, based on four materials, Hautstoß, Sehnenstoß, Salzstoß, and Klebemasse, drawn from raw material already present in any abattoir or meat plant, refined from generations of Alpine butchery tradition for large scale factory production. This article gives the evidence for each material and complete formulations across the main product categories.

Executive Summary

The original raw material used in sausage production, meat, skin, tendon, and the animal’s own fat, already supplies everything a formulation needs. Ninety nine percent of the expensive additives used in modern sausage production, textured soy protein, soy isolate, starch, and synthetic hydrocolloids, can be removed without any loss of function, once skin, tendon, and lean meat are used correctly. In this article we go point by point through the benefits of this age old aproach.

• Meat remains the cheapest and most complete protein available, yet formulation practice keeps adding soy, starch, and synthetic gums, as though meat alone were insufficient.
• Origins Global Meats uses a four part system, Hautstoß, Sehnenstoß, Salzstoß, and Klebemasse, that replaces textured soy protein, soy isolate, starch, and synthetic hydrocolloids across the main sausage and patty categories, using only meat and connective tissue protein.
  • Hautstoß, from the German, Haut for skin, and Sehnenstoß, from the German Sehne for tendon, are heat cut, water extended gelatin preparations that bind water more effectively, at lower cost, than TVP, soy isolate, or starch, once the figures are placed on the same ratio basis.
  • Salzstoß, a verified Austrian butchery term defined in the Österreichisches Lebensmittelbuch, is treated, finely ground connective tissue that requires no added water and instead draws free water out of the surrounding meat matrix, correcting excess moisture and adding firmness.
  • Klebemasse, a salt extracted lean meat paste, restores the myosin binding function that mechanically deboned meat loses through mechanical damage, held to the smallest fraction the formulation can tolerate, since it costs the full price of meat protein.
• In markets such as South Africa, where fat is expensive, and Nigeria, where lean cattle leave little fat to work with, Hautstoß’s ability to replace part of the fat requirement is a direct cost and availability advantage.
• Complete formulations are given for coarse Russian, Hungarian, and Kreiber type sausages, fine emulsion Frankfurter and Vienna type sausages, fresh braai sausages, and hamburger patties, each expressed in percentages that sum to 100 percent.
• The system is grounded in the sol gel and polymer model of meat batters, in which water functions as an irreplaceable plasticiser, connective tissue functions as a filler, and gelatin functions as a separate water holding phase.

What Hautstoß, Sehnenstoß, and Salzstoß Refer To

Before comparing these materials against soy, TVP, and starch, the terms themselves need to be defined precisely, and their evidentiary status stated honestly. Not all three have the same weight of documented history.

Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß

Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß are the names used throughout this article for heat cut, water extended gelatin preparations made from skin and from tendon respectively. Haut is the German word for skin, and Sehne is the German word for tendon. Both are prepared by hot comminution, following the gel chemistry established by Puolanne and Ruusunen [1], and both include added water at the ratio set out later in this article. The resultant products of Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß are names chosen by the authors and are akin to skin emulsions. They are treated in this article as an applied technique developed and refined by Origins Global Meats.

Salzstoß

Salzstoß is a verified technical term. The Österreichisches Lebensmittelbuch, the Austrian food codex, defines Salzstoß in Codexkapitel B14, section B.2.3.3, as the low fat connective tissue, tendons and muscle membranes, that arise from trimming and deboning meat, in a salted state [34]. Salzstoß is permitted in Burenwurst at up to 20 percent of the sausage mass, and appears in the Codex formulations for Waldviertler and for Dürre and Braunschweiger at 10 to 20 percent, generally alongside a small addition of potato starch [35, 36]. As codified, Salzstoß is not heat cut or water extended. It is salted and finely ground, traditionally to 2 to 3 millimetres for coarse sausages such as Burenwurst, and mixed directly into the raw batter. Where this article uses Salzstoß to correct excess moisture in mechanically deboned meat, a finer grind, below 0.5 millimetres, is required, since Ambrosiadis and Wirth documented detectable toughness from unconverted connective tissue particles above this size in fine emulsion products [22].

The traditional Austrian recipes cited above were built around whole cut meat, speck, and Salzstoß, not around mechanically deboned meat, which did not exist as an industrial raw material when these formulations were codified. The small potato starch addition present in every traditional recipe reflects this. Klebemasse, described later in this article, addresses a problem the traditional system never had to solve, the specific binding deficiency mechanically deboned meat develops through mechanical damage during deboning.

Why Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß Bind Water Better Than the Alternatives

Water holding is the function most often used to justify soy, TVP, and starch in a formulation. The figures below place these ingredients next to the documented performance of Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß so the comparison can be made on published numbers rather than assumption. Salzstoß is the one system in this article to which no water is added at any stage, so it does not appear in the water extension figures below.

Documented extension ranges for skin and connective tissue

Osburn and Mandigo, working at the University of Nebraska across a systematic programme covering pork skin connective tissue, beef connective tissue, and chicken skin connective tissue, tested added water levels from 100 up to 600 percent of raw material weight and identified a practical working range of 200 to 300 percent added water for pork and beef material, and a lower practical maximum of 200 percent for chicken skin because its higher fat content destabilises the gel above this level [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. These gels, once formed, were incorporated at 10 to 30 percent of the total weight of the finished bologna, and consistently increased juiciness while acting as a genuine water binder and texture modifier. This article standardises on 400 percent added water, a ratio of 1 to 4, for Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß throughout. This figure falls inside the tested envelope of 100 to 600 percent confirmed by Osburn and Mandigo, though above the narrower practical range they themselves recommended, so it should be read as this article’s own working standard.

The Mapanda protocol, two independent water pools

Mapanda, working under Hoffman and Mellett at Stellenbosch University, and later published with Muller, documented a directly applicable South African protocol [7, 8]. Raw pork rind, 7.5 kilograms, was cooked in 7.5 kilograms of water, giving 100 percent added water on raw rind weight, and the resulting emulsion was included in finished polony at 0, 8, or 16 percent of total batch weight. Mapanda then added a separate, independent quantity of water at the batter mixing stage, adjusted per treatment to reach a constant target protein percentage. The emulsion water and the batter stage water are therefore two separate and cumulative contributions to total product moisture, not two claims on a single fixed water budget.

How this compares with TVP, soy protein, and starch, expressed on one ratio basis

The table below places each ingredient side by side, with a best, typical ratio and a maximum, tested or documented ratio, expressed as parts of water added per one part of raw or dry material. Salzstoß has no water added at any stage, so both columns read as no water added.

Ingredient	Best, typical ratio to water	Maximum, tested or documented ratio to water	Source
Salzstoß, treated, finely ground connective tissue	No water added at any stage	No water added at any stage	Österreichisches Lebensmittelbuch [34, 35, 36]
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß (skin or tendon gel)	1 to 4, this article’s working standard	1 to 6, tested by Osburn and Mandigo	Osburn and Mandigo [2, 3, 4, 6]
Soy TVP, textured soy flour or concentrate	1 to 2	1 to 4, textured soy protein isolate form	Knowde technical reference [11]
Soy isolate, protein isolate hydration	1 to 3, preferred range disclosed for soy protein isolate used as a meat extender	1 to 6, upper limit of the disclosed range for the same application	US Patent 5,160,758 [41]. US Patent 5,433,969 [42]. Organic Way technical reference [43]
Tapioca starch, full gelatinisation	1 to 2.2	1 to 15.6	AIMS Agriculture and Food, 2019 [40]

Pork skin connective tissue gel, beef connective tissue gel, chicken skin connective tissue gel, and the pork rind emulsion applied in South Africa follow the same water ratio behaviour as Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß, since all are heat cut gelatin systems tested by the same research groups. Osburn and Mandigo tested pork and beef connective tissue gel from 1 to 1 up to 1 to 6, and chicken skin connective tissue gel from 1 to 1 up to 1 to 3, with a practical maximum of 1 to 2 because its higher fat content destabilises the gel above this level [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Mapanda’s applied South African pork rind protocol used 1 to 1 in the emulsion itself, with independent water added at the batter stage [7, 8].

Chart 1. How much water each ingredient can bind, in parts of water per one part of the ingredient itself.

Why the starch figure is misleading on its own

Tapioca starch shows a swelling power of up to about 15.6 grams of water per gram of starch under controlled gelatinisation conditions. Other starches show far higher isolated swelling power, potato starch up to 100 grams of water per gram of starch, and rice starch up to 55 grams of water per gram of starch [14, 15, 16]. These figures describe starch in isolation, not starch performing inside an actual meat batter competing with myofibrillar and connective tissue protein for the same water. A controlled study on restructured beef found that added starch at 2 percent together with 10 percent added water increased cooking yield only in formulations that lacked proper salt and phosphate protein extraction. Beef treated with salt and phosphate alone, without any starch, achieved a higher cooking yield than any of the starch containing treatments [17]. Once a formulation already has functional meat protein doing the water binding, as Klebemasse does in this system, a starch’s swelling power figure, however large it looks in isolation, does not translate into a proportional gain in the finished product.

Fat, Cost, and Scarcity: Why Hautstoß Is Important for More Than Water Holding

Fat is one of the most expensive components in a South African sausage formulation, and one of the scarcest in Nigeria, where indigenous Zebu cattle have very little subcutaneous or intermuscular fat regardless of what a formulator is willing to pay for it. A formulation that depends on backfat for lubricity and juiciness is therefore exposed to cost pressure in one market and a genuine supply constraint in the other. Hautstoß addresses both problems at once, because a properly gelatinised collagen gel reads to the palate in a way that overlaps with the sensation fat provides, without requiring fat to be present at all.

The mechanism

Fat contributes lubricity, mouthfeel, and a perception of juiciness in a cooked sausage. A properly gelatinised collagen gel contributes a related but distinct set of properties, because the gel is soft, deformable, and releases moisture on mastication in a way that reads to the palate as juiciness, even though the material is water bound in a protein matrix rather than fat bound in a lipid phase. Pereira et al. found that adding collagen fibres to frankfurter type sausages changed textural characteristics in a direction consistent with fat replacement [19]. The broader collagen literature summarised by Al Hajj et al. describes hydrolysed collagen functioning directly as a fat replacer in processed meat products, including cases where it has substituted for pork backfat at levels up to fifty percent [18]. Sousa et al. demonstrated this directly in frankfurter type sausages, where partial replacement of backfat with hydrolysed collagen alone, with no plasma protein present, increased hardness, elasticity, and chewiness rather than producing the soft, greasy defect one would expect from a poorly functioning fat substitute [20].

What this means for two different markets

In South Africa, a Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß addition displaces a portion of the added backfat at a moment when fat costs considerably more per kilogram than raw skin. In Nigeria, where lean, working Zebu cattle yield little fat regardless of price, Hautstoß supplies the lubricity and juiciness that fat would otherwise have to provide, using a raw material, skin, that remains abundant even when fat is not. The same ingredient therefore solves a cost problem in one market and a genuine availability problem in the other.

How Firmness Is Established

Firmness is often assumed to be the one property a diluted collagen gel cannot deliver, because a gel extended with water is expected to soften rather than strengthen a formulation. The evidence below, all of it independent of blood plasma unless stated otherwise, shows this assumption does not hold once the mechanism and the correct comminution practice are understood.

The gel mechanism and its robustness

Firmness in a heat cut, water extended Stoß comes from the reformation of collagen triple helix junction zones on cooling, the same mechanism that sets a gelatin dessert. This is a physical, temperature reversible gel, and its strength depends on the concentration of gelatinised collagen relative to the water held in the gel. As established by Puolanne and Ruusunen, this gel strength is stable across the normal range of salt, phosphate, water, and pH adjustments used in commercial sausage manufacture [1].

Evidence that collagen increases firmness without a plasma protein partner

Sousa et al. replaced backfat in frankfurter type sausages with hydrolysed collagen alone [20]. This increased hardness, elasticity, and chewiness rather than producing a soft or greasy defect. A separate line of evidence, cited in the introduction to the 2026 Gels study, reports that pork gelatin addition improved water holding capacity and reduced cooking losses in low fat model sausages, again using collagen alone, without any plasma protein present. The same 2026 study by Gheorghe, Nour, and Codina went further at industrial scale, fully replacing soy protein isolate in an emulsion type pork sausage with a combination of collagen protein at 1.88 percent and pig blood plasma protein at 3.4 percent, and recorded a significant increase in hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and shear force compared with the soy based control [21]. The plasma protein used in that study is identified in the paper as a commercial pig blood plasma protein preparation, supplied by Aromatique Food in Bucharest. For a system built without access to blood plasma, the Sousa et al. and Lee and Chin findings are the directly applicable evidence.

Study	Collagen used alone or with plasma	Fat or soy protein replaced	Result
Sousa et al., 2017 [20]	Collagen alone	Backfat, partial replacement	Increased hardness, elasticity, chewiness
Lee and Chin, 2016, cited in Gheorghe et al., 2026 [21]	Collagen (gelatin) alone	Fat, in low fat model sausages	Improved water holding capacity, reduced cooking loss
Gheorghe, Nour, and Codina, 2026 [21]	Collagen combined with pig blood plasma protein	Soy protein isolate, full replacement	Increased hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, shear force

Why comminution particle size determines whether connective tissue helps or hurts

Purslow found that between 25 and 50 degrees Celsius during the sausage cook cycle, residual unhydrolysed connective tissue actually becomes stronger before the myofibrillar proteins have fully set [23]. Ambrosiadis and Wirth showed that particles of unconverted connective tissue larger than 0.5 millimetres will produce detectable toughness within this temperature window in a fine emulsion sausage [22]. This means a Salzstoß intended to firm a batter must be comminuted below 0.5 millimetres before use in a fine emulsion product, or it will introduce toughness rather than a clean firming effect. This constraint is specific to unconverted connective tissue particles and does not apply in the same way to a coarsely cut piece of lean meat.

Salzstoß compared with synthetic and extracted hydrocolloids

Salzstoß is not the only ingredient meat processors use to increase firmness. Kappa carrageenan, locust bean gum, methylcellulose, and agar are all customarily used for the same purpose. The table below compares the concentration each requires against the concentration of Salzstoß used in this article’s formulations, and states what each is made from.

Ingredient	Typical concentration for a firming effect	Raw material and process	Source
Salzstoß, treated, finely ground connective tissue	3 to 7 percent as a correction dose in mechanically deboned meat. 10 to 20 percent in traditional Austrian recipes where it replaces part of the lean meat itself	Byproduct of trimming and deboning, already generated in any abattoir or meat plant	Österreichisches Lebensmittelbuch [34, 35, 36]
Kappa carrageenan	0.3 to 1 percent	Extracted from red seaweed by a specialised industrial process	Technical reference [33]. Gheorghe et al. [21]
Locust bean gum	0.1 to 0.2 percent, generally combined with carrageenan	Extracted from the seed endosperm of the carob tree	Technical reference [33]
Methylcellulose	0.3 to 0.5 percent	Chemically modified cellulose, produced by an industrial process	Technical reference [33]
Agar	0.2 to 0.5 percent in canned meat products	Extracted from red algae. Estimated at approximately eighteen United States dollars per kilogram in 2009, among the more expensive hydrocolloids	Gino Gums technical reference [37]. Bixler and Porse, cited in ScienceDirect Topics [38]

Salzstoß requires a far larger inclusion percentage than any of the four hydrocolloids above to achieve a comparable firming effect. This looks unfavourable until the raw material cost is considered. Carrageenan, locust bean gum, and agar are each produced from seaweed or tree seed by a specialised extraction process, and methylcellulose by an industrial chemical modification of cellulose, all priced accordingly. Salzstoß is a byproduct of trimming and deboning that already occurs in any meat plant, priced at the cost of raw skin and tendon. Even at several times the inclusion percentage, its cost per kilogram of finished product remains far below any of the four hydrocolloids compared here.

Cost Comparison

The functional case for skin and tendon means little without a cost comparison attached to it. The table below combines the raw material cost with the cost after water has been added, since this is the form in which each ingredient actually functions in a sausage.

Ingredient	Raw cost per kg	Extension or hydration ratio	Cost per kg after water has been added
Beef skin, raw, dehaired	R7	Mapanda basis, 1 to 1	Approximately R3.50
Beef skin, raw, dehaired	R7	1 to 4	Approximately R1.40
Pork skin, raw	R13 to R14	Mapanda basis, 1 to 1	Approximately R6.50 to R7.00
Pork skin, raw	R13 to R14	1 to 4	Approximately R2.60 to R2.80
TVP	R18	Industry range, 1 to 2 up to 1 to 4	Approximately R3.60 to R6.00
Soy protein isolate	R55	Industry range, 1 to 2 up to 1 to 5	Approximately R9.17 to R18.33
Starch	R18	Not usefully expressed this way	Its water binding contribution depends on the protein system already present
Collagen powder, dried, purchased	Up to R110	Not applicable, used as a concentrated additive	Not applicable
Deboned chicken leg meat, estimated	R35 to R50	Not applicable, used as a whole meat protein source	Not applicable. Estimate requires supplier confirmation

Chart 2. Cost per kilogram after water has been added, for beef skin, pork skin, TVP, and soy protein isolate.

Skin and connective tissue gel remain the cheapest source of finished, water bound material at every extension level tested, even before the fat replacement value discussed earlier is added to the calculation.

Formulations

This section sets out the structural basis for every formulation that follows, aligns it with the established engineering model of meat batters, and then gives complete recipes across the four main product categories. The exact methods for applying this system at large factory scale are one of the areas in which Origins Global Meats specialises.

The basis of the meat gel

Gelatin does not form an elastic, heat set gel. It forms a thermoreversible physical gel that melts above approximately 47 to 52 degrees Celsius, as documented by Puolanne and Ruusunen [1]. A sausage cooked to a typical internal temperature of 72 degrees Celsius passes well beyond this melting point, so a gelatin only system would be liquid at the moment the product needs to hold its shape. The snap of a cooked sausage instead comes from the irreversible heat set gel formed by myosin above approximately 50 degrees Celsius, as described by Tornberg [25] and by Offer and Knight [26]. Gelatin and myosin are thermally complementary, since cold gelatin provides cold state cohesion and juiciness while hot myosin provides cooked state structure and snap, and neither can substitute for the other. Xiong’s review of protein functionality in comminuted meat places the minimum lean meat or actomyosin fraction required for acceptable snap at 25 percent of total batch weight, with 25 to 30 percent as the practical range used in commercial formulations [27]. This is why every formulation in this section maintains at least 25 to 30 percent lean meat or functional myofibrillar protein alongside any mechanically deboned meat.

Meat batter as a filled, plasticised polymer system

The way Hautstoß, Sehnenstoß, Salzstoß, and Klebemasse combine in a formulation is best understood through the framework LaBudde set out in a 1992 review, republished by EarthwormExpress [39]. Cooked, comminuted meat products are described in that review as a water plasticised, filled cell, mixed composite thermosetting biopolymer. The long chain muscle proteins, chiefly myosin, form the polymer network. Water is the plasticiser, the solvent that hydrates the polymer and allows the protein chains to unfold and crosslink. Fat and other insoluble materials act as fillers, which generally stiffen the matrix, and some fillers bind directly to the setting protein and increase strength disproportionately to their weight in the formula, described in that review as active fillers.

Salzstoß fits this framework as a filler. Its particles of undissolved collagen sit within the myosin matrix in the way an active filler does, and Purslow’s finding that connective tissue strengthens ahead of the myofibrillar set [23] is consistent with LaBudde’s description of a filler that binds to the setting polymer. Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß fit the framework differently, because they hold their own separate water load inside an already formed gelatin gel, removing a share of the water holding burden from the myosin matrix itself. LaBudde’s review predicts this outcome directly, since a filler with high water holding capacity de-plasticises the surrounding system, producing a firmer, less extensible matrix [39]. This is the mechanism by which the water holding task in the formulations below is shifted almost entirely onto Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß, while Salzstoß contributes as an aggregate rather than as a source of water.

This shift is not complete, and cannot be. Water remains the plasticiser for whatever myosin matrix is still present, and without it the protein chains cannot unfold, hydrate, or crosslink. Water also moves salt, phosphate, and spice through the batter, a distributive function no other ingredient performs. A mechanically deboned meat base that is already excessively wet is a distinct problem from a mechanically deboned meat base of normal moisture, since the first has too much uncontrolled water in the wrong place, while the second needs its share of controlled, added water to plasticise the matrix correctly. This is the basis for the two paddle mixer formulations given below.

Typical and maximum inclusion by product class

The table below sets out typical and maximum inclusion levels for Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß, Salzstoß, and Klebemasse across the four product classes covered in this article. Water ratios are not repeated here, since they are set out in the comparison table earlier in this article.

Product class	Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß, typical / maximum	Salzstoß, typical / maximum	Klebemasse, typical / maximum
Coarse Russian, Hungarian, and Kreiber type, paddle mixer only	20 percent / 30 percent	0 percent, or 7 percent when correcting watery mechanically deboned meat / 20 percent, per traditional Austrian ceiling	5 percent / 8 percent, pending bench confirmation
Fine emulsion Frankfurter and Vienna type, cutter based	10 percent, matching the recipe below / 20 percent, the upper limit Osburn and Mandigo validated for a cooked, water immersed product	0 percent / 5 percent, per the traditional raw connective tissue ceiling	Not required, since the cutter performs the equivalent extraction directly on lean meat
Fresh braai sausage, not boerewors	22 percent / 28 to 30 percent	0 percent, or up to 20 percent where a coarser, traditional style Salzstoß inclusion is wanted	3 to 4 percent / 8 percent, pending bench confirmation
Hamburger patty	20 percent / 20 percent, corrected working limit under direct dry heat	Not established for this category	0 to 2 percent, optional, for bind during handling and flipping

Complete recipes

Every recipe below is expressed as a percentage of the total formulation, and every table sums to 100 percent.

Frankfurter, mortadella, and bologna, cutter based fine emulsion

Intact lean meat is cut first with salt and phosphate to build the myosin matrix directly in the cutter, following standard Brühwurst practice. Klebemasse is not needed as a separate ingredient, because the cutter performs the same salt extraction function on the lean meat fraction that Klebemasse performs off line for a paddle mixer system.

Wikimeat, the Austrian meat trade reference compiled with the Wirtschaftskammer, the Agrarmarkt Austria, the Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, and the Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien, publishes the standard composition for Frankfurter, Wiener Würstel, and Weißwürstel as 42 parts meat, 25 parts fat, and 33 parts water, plus 1 part potato starch, per 100 parts sausage mass [48]. This pairing of 42 parts meat with 33 parts water is a proven combination and does not need to change. Osburn and Mandigo found that gelatin gel inclusion at 10 to 30 percent consistently increased juiciness while acting as a genuine water binder, because the gel holds that water in its own thermoreversible phase rather than asking the myosin network to hold it [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Mapanda demonstrated the same separation directly, treating the rind emulsion water and the batter stage water as two independent, cumulative pools rather than two claims on one shared budget [7, 8]. On this basis, the meat fraction does not need to be enlarged to cover water the Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß already holds on its own. What changes is the fat allocation. Al Hajj et al. and Sousa et al. document collagen replacing fat at levels up to fifty percent, and the formulation below follows that ceiling, with Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß included as a separate, additional, water carrying component at the lower bound of the range Osburn and Mandigo tested [18, 20].

Component	Percent of batch	Function
Lean meat, cut first with salt and phosphate	41	Builds the myosin matrix directly during cutting, matching the proven Wikimeat pairing with the ice water figure below
Fat, added after the lean meat matrix is built	12.5	Half of the traditional fat allocation, at the ceiling documented by Al Hajj et al. and Sousa et al. [18, 20]
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß	10	The other half of the fat allocation, at the lower bound of the range Osburn and Mandigo tested for gel inclusion in a finished product [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Salt	1.8	Extraction of salt soluble protein
Spice and functional pack	2.2	Flavour, colour stability, and water binding support
Ice water, added progressively during cutting	32.5	Close to the Wikimeat figure of 33, carried by the meat fraction as the benchmark already validates
Total	100

Total moisture in this formulation, meat moisture, fat moisture, the water inside the Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß, and the ice water, comes to approximately 71 percent. This is about five percentage points above the Wikimeat figure of approximately 66 percent, and the difference belongs entirely to the Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß, held in its own gel rather than drawn from the meat fraction’s own binding capacity. Lee and Chin, cited in the introduction to the Gheorghe et al. 2026 study, found that pork gelatin addition improved water holding capacity and reduced cooking losses in low fat model sausages, consistent with this additional water being gelatin bound rather than free, provided hot comminution follows the Puolanne and Ruusunen principle [1, 21]. This exact combination has not been bench tested, and a trial batch is needed before scaling.

Russian, Hungarian, and Kreiber sausages, paddle mixer only

These products use mechanically deboned meat as the main protein and myosin source, mixed in a paddle mixer with no cutter available. Klebemasse is required, since no equipment on site extracts myosin from intact lean meat with sufficient force. Two versions are given, one for mechanically deboned meat of normal moisture content, and one for mechanically deboned meat with excess moisture.

Formulation A, mechanically deboned meat of normal moisture content

Component	Percent of batch	Function
Klebemasse	5	Corrects the binding deficiency caused by mechanical damage to myosin during deboning
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß	20	Water and fat holding through the gelatin gel
Chicken mechanically deboned meat	60	Bulk protein and the primary myosin source
Salt	1.8	Extraction of salt soluble protein
Spice and functional pack	2.2	Flavour, colour stability, and water binding support
Ice water	11	Carries salt and the functional pack through the batter, controls batter temperature
Total	100

Formulation B, mechanically deboned meat with excess moisture

Component	Percent of batch	Function
Klebemasse	5	Same function as Formulation A
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß	20	Same function as Formulation A
Chicken mechanically deboned meat	60	Same function as Formulation A
Salt	1.8	Same function as Formulation A
Spice and functional pack	2.2	Same function as Formulation A
Salzstoß, comminuted below 0.5 millimetres, no water added	7	Absorbs the excess free water already present in the mechanically deboned meat, and adds firmness
Ice water	4	Reduced from Formulation A because Salzstoß is handling the moisture correction
Total	100

Fresh braai sausage, not boerewors

A braai sausage that does not have the boerewors or species sausage designation is not bound by the South African prohibition on added protein ingredients that applies specifically to those two categories [32].

Component	Percent of batch	Function
Klebemasse	4	Reduced from the Russian and Hungarian tier, since the bind standard for a braai sausage is less demanding
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß	22	Increased to replace more of the meat cost
Chicken mechanically deboned meat	62	Bulk protein and myosin source
Salt	1.8	Extraction of salt soluble protein
Spice and functional pack	2.2	Flavour, colour stability, and water binding support
Ice water	8	Carries salt and the functional pack through the batter
Total	100

Budget braai sausage

This tier pushes Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß toward the tested ceiling of 30 percent established by Osburn and Mandigo for finished bologna [2, 3, 4, 6], and reduces added ice water accordingly, since the Stoß itself already has substantial water through its own gelatin gel.

Component	Percent of batch	Function
Klebemasse	3	Working minimum for this tier. Requires bench confirmation before scaling to production
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß	28	Near the tested ceiling of 30 percent for finished bologna type products
Chicken mechanically deboned meat	62	Bulk protein and myosin source
Salt	1.8	Extraction of salt soluble protein
Spice and functional pack	2.2	Flavour, colour stability, and water binding support
Ice water	3	Reduced because the Stoß fraction already has substantial water
Total	100

Hamburger patty

This formulation corrects the inclusion level used in an earlier version of this system for fried and grilled patties. Skin or connective tissue gel is capped at 20 percent of batch weight, since this is the upper boundary Osburn and Mandigo validated for a cooked, water immersed product, and no study has tested gelatin performance at higher inclusion under direct dry heat. Mechanically deboned meat or lean beef trim remains the main protein and myosin source. A small Klebemasse addition is optional, included only where extra bind is wanted to keep the patty intact during handling and flipping.

Component	Percent of batch	Function
Lean beef trim or mechanically deboned meat	53	Main protein and myosin source
Klebemasse	2	Optional. Improves bind during handling and flipping
Hautstoß or Sehnenstoß	20	Water holding and fat replacement, at the corrected working limit for direct dry heat
Fat trim	12	Lubricity and flavour
Salt	1.5	Extraction of salt soluble protein
Spice and functional pack	1.5	Flavour and water binding support
Ice water	10	Carries salt and the functional pack, controls mixing temperature
Total	100

What each ingredient replaces

Klebemasse replaces soy protein isolate, because isolate is used in South Africa specifically to compensate for the myosin functionality mechanically deboned meat has lost through mechanical damage, and Klebemasse restores that functionality directly rather than substituting a foreign protein for it. Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß replace both starch and TVP, because the gelatin gel supplies the water holding starch is meant to provide and the bulk and juiciness TVP is meant to provide, without the extension cost of either. Salzstoß replaces the additional starch or extra phosphate a formulator would otherwise add to correct a watery mechanically deboned meat batch, because it corrects the moisture problem directly through collagen’s own water absorption. The spice and functional pack includes its own additives for pH adjustment and myosin solubility, a chemical function none of the three meat derived materials perform on their own.

The smallest usable fraction of Klebemasse

Klebemasse is made from lean muscle meat, so it costs the full price of meat protein rather than the low price of skin or tendon. Minimising it is therefore a genuine cost objective, not only a formulation preference. No peer reviewed source establishes a minimum Klebemasse fraction for use with mechanically deboned meat, because Klebemasse as used in this article is an applied technique, not a published one. Xiong’s finding applies to intact lean meat cut directly into a batter, not to a pre extracted, concentrated myofibrillar paste, so his 25 to 30 percent figure cannot be transferred directly to Klebemasse without a conversion factor that has not been established in the literature [27]. Because Klebemasse concentrates salt soluble myosin through extraction before it enters the batter, a smaller fraction than 25 to 30 percent should in principle deliver equivalent functional binding, but this is a reasoned expectation, not a verified figure. The working range used in the formulations above moves from 5 percent at the premium tier down to 3 percent at the budget tier. Confirming how much further this can fall requires bench testing, reducing Klebemasse in small steps of about 1 percent while measuring gel strength or shear force at each step, and stopping at the first step where bind fails. Until that trial is run, 3 percent should be treated as the lowest tested working figure in this article, not as an established floor.

When Does Starch, TVP, or Soy Isolate Still Make Sense

Having shown that skin, tendon, and Klebemasse cover binding, water holding, firmness, and part of the fat requirement, the question narrows to what remains for foreign protein to do. The table below sets out the reasons industry gives for using soy or TVP, and tests each reason against a formulation already built on Klebemasse and Stoß.

Reason industry gives for soy or TVP	Explanation	Still applies once Klebemasse and Stoß are properly used
Meat prices are high	Soy substitutes for part of the meat protein at a lower apparent cost	No. Klebemasse and Stoß meet this cost target using meat industry by products, at a lower cost per kilogram of finished material than soy
Soy has a well balanced amino acid profile	Improves the overall amino acid completeness of the formulation	Only where the meat fraction itself has a poor amino acid profile. A properly extracted meat protein system does not have this deficiency
Improves fat absorption, water binding, and adhesion	Soy protein isolate is amphiphilic and stabilises fat and water together	Water binding and adhesion are already supplied by Stoß. Fat absorption remains relevant only at very high fat inclusion
Lowers production cost while improving yield	Soy is inexpensive per raw kilogram and extends the batch	No. Once cost is adjusted for extension ratio, skin and connective tissue gel cost less per kilogram of finished material than soy

Genuine remaining cases

Situation	Why skin, tendon, or Klebemasse alone cannot solve it	Correct response
Declared dietary fibre content on the label	No meat or connective tissue fraction contains fibre, since fibre is by definition a plant derived component	Add a plant fibre only when the claim itself requires it
PSE meat, native water holding capacity already lost through postmortem pH decline	Collagen was never the protein responsible for holding that water, so it cannot correct a shortage of functional myofibrillar protein	Add a properly prepared Klebemasse, restoring functional myofibrillar protein directly
Sensory fine tuning in a collagen based sausage with no plasma protein available	The 2026 Gels study found that removing soy without any hydrocolloid left sensory scores below the soy control [21]	Add kappa carrageenan at approximately 1 percent with a low dose of sodium tripolyphosphate. Avoid xanthan gum, since it reduced hardness, cohesiveness, and sensory acceptance in the same study

PSE meat, a genuine exception

Pale, soft, and exudative meat has already lost a substantial portion of its native water holding capacity through the postmortem pH decline that denatures myofibrillar protein before rigor is complete. This is a protein functionality problem, not a formulation design problem, and it cannot be corrected by adding more collagen, because collagen was never the protein responsible for holding that water in the first place. The correct response is the same salt extraction principle used to prepare Klebemasse for any functionally poor mechanically deboned meat, since this restores genuine salt soluble myofibrillar protein to the batch.

The Regulatory Frameworks

The functional case made above is strengthened by the fact that two separate regulatory systems reward the same choice for different reasons.

Germany and Austria

The Leitsätze für Fleisch und Fleischerzeugnisse define bindegewebseiweißfreies Fleischeiweiß, abbreviated BEFFE, as total meat protein minus connective tissue protein [31]. Connective tissue protein from skin and tendon still counts as meat protein even though it does not count toward the BEFFE value. Foreign protein, Fremdeiweiß, explicitly includes soy protein, egg white, milk protein, and wheat protein, and stays entirely outside the meat protein calculation. Its use must be justified on taste or technological grounds and must be declared. Added phosphate is separately capped at 5 grams per kilogram, equal to 0.5 percent, calculated as P2O5, under Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 as implemented in Germany [30].

Austria specifically

The Österreichisches Lebensmittelbuch permits Salzstoß, Schwarten, blood, and offal as recognised sausage raw materials under Codexkapitel B14, alongside meat, fat, salt, and spice [34]. Salzstoß is treated as a legitimate connective tissue raw material within this framework, not as a foreign or substitute ingredient, consistent with the treatment of connective tissue protein under the German Leitsätze.

South Africa

The Processed Meat Regulations set a minimum of 60 percent total meat protein equivalent calculated, a minimum of 25 percent actual total meat content analysed, a minimum of 15 percent actual lean meat analysed, and a maximum of 30 percent fat analysed for both boerewors and species sausage [32]. Both categories explicitly state that the product shall not contain soya protein, including textured soya protein, milk protein, egg albumin, or any other added protein ingredient. A product containing any of these must instead be labelled braaiwors, fries, grillers, or bangers, a lower category.

Conclusion

Origins Global Meats has built a system that moves factories away from dependence on imported, expensive functional ingredients, textured soy protein, soy protein isolate, and synthetic hydrocolloids, toward four meat and connective tissue derived materials, Hautstoß, Sehnenstoß, Salzstoß, and Klebemasse. Hautstoß and Sehnenstoß bind water more effectively than TVP, soy isolate, or starch once the figures are placed on the same basis, and displace part of the fat requirement in markets where fat is expensive or scarce. Salzstoß, a verified Austrian butchery term, corrects excess moisture and adds firmness at a fraction of the cost of the synthetic hydrocolloids customarily used for the same purpose. Klebemasse restores the binding function mechanically deboned meat loses through mechanical damage, held to the smallest fraction the formulation can tolerate, since it alone costs the full price of meat protein.

The exact methods for applying this system at large factory scale, seamlessly and without disrupting existing production lines, are one of the areas in which Origins Global Meats specialises, drawing on traditions that trace back generations in the Alpine meat trade and adapted specifically for industrial application. The formulations set out in this article demonstrate that the underlying principle holds across product categories, from coarse Russian and Hungarian type sausages to fine emulsion Frankfurters, fresh braai sausages, and hamburger patties, without recourse to soy, TVP, or starch.

Everything needed to produce sausages that compete with imported mechanically deboned meat based products from countries such as Brazil, Spain, and Italy is already present inside Nigeria. What is missing is not a raw material. It is systems, structure, and know how, together with a small number of correctly chosen ingredients. Nigeria already has what it needs to produce some of the healthiest processed meat products available anywhere for a large and growing population, without any need for imported food additives.

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