Process for the production of low fat meats

A process for taking the saturated and unsaturated fat out of raw meats, raw ground meats and raw ground meat preparations while restoring the nutrients that flow out of the meat with the fat when the raw meat is heated consisting essentially of:

• a. heating said raw meat with 0.0 to about 0.6 ml of added water per gram of meat for a time and at a temperature of 95.degree.-97.degree. C. to form a meat juice and to allow the meat juice, containing saturated and unsaturated fat and nutrients from the heated meat, to flow out of the meat,
• b. separating the heated meat from the meat juice containing saturated and unsaturated fat and nutrients originally present in the raw meat,
• c. pouring the meat juice into a vessel wherein a fat layer containing saturated and unsaturated fat and an aqueous layer containing nutrients originally present in the meat are formed,
• d. separating said aqueous layer from said fat layer, and
• e. adding the separated aqueous layer thus obtained to the previously heated and separated meat to form a mixture and heating the resulting mixture gently at a temperature and for a time sufficient for all of the aqueous layer to be absorbed by the meat to produce a moist low fat meat product with a reduced fat content as compared to the original fat content of the raw meat.