The Montgomery Advertiser du lieu suivant : Montgomery, Alabama • 31

Restructured meats mm ew toFmat A -a esearchers may fill gap of ower Bins between hamburger, steak may contuse 5 "I used to think my co-workers and I were blue-sky dreaming 20 years ago when we talked of the day when a steer would be driven into a meat packing plant, all the meat removed and the entire animal used to produce meat consistent in every way" Dale Huffman 1 rtVt tVV.VAVAAA KKKK vava AUBURN What product may one day soon fill the gap, both taste and price-wise, between hamburger and steak? Restructured steaks an innovation of Auburn University's Dale Huffman. The Agricultural Experiment Station researcher and his coworkers have developed a process, now patented, whereby the Jess desirable parts of beef and pork are upgraded in quality to form fresh meat products with good texture, the correct amount of fat, and uniform size and shape. "I used to think my co-workers and I were blue-sky dreaming 20 years ago when we talked of the day when a steer would be driven into a meat packing plant, all the meat removed and the entire animal used to produce meat consistent in every way," Huffman recalled. But the dream has, indeed, come true for Huffman and associate Joe Cordray in the form of restructured meat. Before this research, most formed meat was made by grinding and flaking.

The new process combines mechanically tenderized chunks and thinly sliced meat into steaks and chops. Because the raw materials are not ground, the product has more of the "bite' of muscle meat. And resulting product. By MARTY LOU ELLIS Journal Staff Writer Alabama Power Co. customers may notice slightly lower utility bills this summer because of a new energy cost recovery system approved last month by the state Public Service Commission.

However, the new bill format resulting from the change could cause some confusion. The PSC voted May 29 to adopt the energy cost recovery factor a method used by Georgia Power Co. and the Georgia PSC to determine proper fuel recovery costs for the utility. The factor replaces Alabama Power's old fuel adjustment charge, which covered the costs of buying power. The fuel adjustment charge was figured monthly, based on a standard formula and presented to the Public Service Commission.

Under law, the PSC had to approve the figure on the spot without a hearing, unlessthe commission staff could prove error in power company calculations. Electricity bills fluctuated every month as a result of the fuel adjustment charge. The energy cost recovery factor will be presented to the PSC 45 days in advance of its effective date and a public hearing will be held to study the company's calculations. The PSC staff will introduce its own testimony and question the power company's testimony. In addition, the energy cost recovery factor will be figured quarterly, instead of monthly, which should help level out utility bills, according to company spokesman Chris Conway.

The first noticable difference will be the format of Alabama Power's July bills. The old bill itemized the standard monthly service charge, basic rate for the number of kilowatt-hours used, fuel adjustment charge and the taxes levied on the A labama law gives tax credit for installing solar devices table as grain-fed muscle meat, he said. In this way, the varieties of raw materials available and readily produced in Alabama are used to produce an economical product. And because the restructured steaks and chops are meant to be cooked frozen, there is added convenience for the cook who forgets to thaw out the night's supper. Huffman visualizes boneless restructured pork chops being available at a lower cost than center cut bone-in chops.

The restructured steaks are comparable to round steaks in price more expensive than hamburger and less than muscle meat. "We're not trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," Huffman cautioned, but he does see a market for his products. Since the patent was issued to Auburn University last summer, a nucleus of people has begun manufacturing the restructured meat products. There is also sufficient interest among packers to warrant optimism, he said. Cordray recently took 125 pounds of restructured pork chops to the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, where the reception was favorable, he says.

The Auburn researcher soon will be attempting to adapt poultry to this process. formal comment" and at this time should come down neither for nor against it. The committee, which was holding an open meeting in the Treasury's gilded Cash Room under the so-called Sunshine Law, then agreed to this compromise. Regan, who is chairman of the panel, proposed the accelerated phase-out of the interest rate ceilings and his proposal was accepted by all members except Pratt, who abstained. The savings and loan industry has been chary of deregulalting too swiftly, for fear that many of its members would fail financially if forced by competitive pressures to pay higher rates on savings Many of the thrift units are locked into long-term mortgage portfolios that earn them less than 10 percent interest annually.

The industry's income comes mainly from interest rates on home mortgages. Yields on most of these mortgages are less than 10 percent and are lower than the cost of deposits. Pratt reported that 70 percent of the 4,700 savings and loan associations were now suiienng losses. ttt4 Yt 1 only for the year of 1981," McKee said, "because the credits diminish 5 percent per year for five years." The federal tax credit ends in 1985. Gerald R.

Guinn, director of the Alabama Solar Energy Center in Huntsville, explained how the credits work. "Suppose you spend $3,000 on active solar energy equipment and its installation at any time during 1981 for your principal Alabama residence. You could deduct 25 percent of that cost from your state income taxes, and 40 percent from your federal taxes for a total of 65 percent tax credit. taxed in Montgomery's Adams Drug Co. says removal of the tax will make it easier for some pharmacies to transact business.

For several years, drug purchases by those age 65 and older have been exempt from the tax. But proof of age was required, and records had to be kept on sales to those over age 65 and those not. Vincent says his store's computer will keep track of prescription drug purchases automatically, and proof of age will no longer be a total sum. The new bill will show a single charge, which will include the monthly customer service charge, the basic rate for the number of kilowatt-hours used, at $33.70 for 1,000 kwh; the energy cost recovery factor, and the state utility license tax, $1 for 1,000 kwh, for a total of $56.33 for 1,000 kwh. The Alabama Gross Receipts Tax, a 4 percent tax the utility remits to the state, will be tacked on.

The total bill, including taxes, for a customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours in June will be $58.53, Conway said. The Public Service Commission approved a $17.88 energy cost recovery factor for June, which lumps together all the company's fuel costs. In May the fuel adjustment charge was $12.85. When added to the built-in $11.50 fuel charge under the old bill, the total charge for May equaled $24.35 $6.47 more than the PSC-approved June rate. According to Alabama Power Co.

officials, if the old fuel adjustment charge were still in effect, the company would have asked for $10.42 for June, or a total of $21.92 including the built-in $11.50 fuel charge. Under the new system, power company customers will pay $4.04 less than they would have with the old system. Conway said the price change reflects an increase in the cost of coal and an increase in the use of electricity, which is traditionally higher in the summer months. However, the increased availability of low-operating-cost nuclear generation from the Farley I nuclear power plant near Dothan is helping bring electricity prices down. Farley Unit II is expected to be in full working order in early August, Conway said.

from the tax. According to J.R. Barnes, chief of the sales and use tax division of the Revenue Department, the department will continue to require drug stores to report what percentage of their business is prescription drug sales. Revenue's Lewis Easterly, division chief of the research, statistics and liaison division, says estimates of revenue lost to the state as a result of removing the tax is $4.9 million annually. sMost cf that loss about $4.5 Bank regulators speeding phase-out of interest ceilings on savings deposits "These two combined credits would leave you paying a mere one-third, or just $1,050, of the total $3,000 expenditure for a typical solar water heater.

If the credit is greater than your tax liability, then you may pay no taxes, and carry over the leftover credit to the next year." He also noted that the tax credit is applicable to home-built solar heating devices. "Alabama is now the seventh largest manufacturer in the nation of flatplate solar collectors," Guinn said. According to Guinn, an active See SOLAR, page 4 state time-consuming requirement. Drugs prescribed by doctors for human consumption, when the prescription is filled by a licensed pharmacist, will join a long list oi items already exempt from the tax. Ironically, for many years, the list of exempt items included drugs and antibiotics and other medicines for commercially raised fish, livestock and poultry.

4 Wednesday, human prescription medicines will join that list. whether it be steak or boneless chops, is uniform in shape, density and fat content. Through this new method, chunks and slices are blended and formed into logs, which are frozen before being shaped and sliced. When the researcher began work on the project eight years ago, the first task he faced was finding a way to make chunks of meat bind together. Through a unique method, the natural binders in the meat are extracted so that they are outside the chunks; water is then used to solubilize the protein so it speeds through the meat and binds it together.

The meat could have been held together through the use of soy or some other protein binder. However, fresh meat products cannot have anything (with the exception of small quantities of salt and water) added unless it is delcared. Huffman decided to use what was ginning Aug. 1, the rate on these certificates will be pegged to the rate on 30-month Treasury securities, now about 14V4 percent. Under the complex schedule agreed to by the Treasury Secretary and the chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Administration, ceilings on all deposits of four years' maturity or more will be eliminated on Aug.

1. These deposits now have maximum ceilings of about 12 percent. Deposits of 30 months to four years will be pegged to the Treasury bill rate as of Aug. 1. Thereafter, there will be a staggered elimination of ceilings on deposits of 30 months to four years, with some of these deposits pegged to Treasury bill rates of various duration as the ceilings are eliminated.

The various changes will be made each Aug. 1 and the last ceiling will be terminated on Aug. 1,1985. But the differential permitting thrift institutions to pay a quarter of a percentage point more than commercial banks will stay in ef already there naturally. Another problem he faced in finding a way to restructure meat concerned the distribution of fat, which is a key element in flavor and juiciness.

Because chunks of beef do not contain enough fat for good flavor, Huffman turned to wafer-thin slices of meat, which provide a good distribution of fat and thus enhance the flavor of the steaks. The restructured meat products have several advantages, according to the researcher. Because the quality is upgraded through the process, cheaper and lower quality cuts of meat can be used. A round of beef, for example, may be too chewy and unflavorful to eat by itself, but combined in chunks with slices of meat, it becomes a tasty steak, Huffman said. In addition, beef raised on forage can be made nearly as accep fect until Aug.

1, 1983. Irvine H. Sprague, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, proposed to double the current interest rate on passbook savings, the form of account held by most small savers. He argued that the small savers had long been discriminated against and were in effect subsidizing the higher interest rates offered on larger deposits. But Richard T.

Pratt, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, contended that such action taken now, when most thrift institutions are feeling severe earnings pressure, would be "extremely detrimental." The Home Loan Bank Board regulates savings and loan associations. Sprague's agency regulates mutual savings banks and some smaller commercial banks. The savings associations and savings banks are collectively known as thrifts. Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, whose institution regulates most of the large commercial banks, suggested that the panel should put the Sprague proposal up for "in Jiinu Htt percent credit for passive solar devices.

Passive systems are essentially non-mechanical and use the building's structural elements to collect and store the sun's heat. It may also include a passive cooling subsystem. Active systems use pumps and fans to distribute the energy. Both tax credits were passed in the just-ended session of the Alabama Legislature and signed into law by the governor. Rep.

Bob McKee of Montgomery, an outspoken supporter of the bills, said the credits are retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year. full tax benefit is good longer cause the sales tax has been a major support of education in the state, earlier attempts to reduce it failed. Rep. Jack Biddle of Gardendale managed to remove the tax from drugs this year because he figured out a way to replace the lost revenue.

All the revenue would have been replaced, according to department estimates, if a proposed increase in sales tax on vending machine purchases also had passed, but that effort died. i Pharmacist? -Blake Vincent l6f Imagine solar equipment for your home for just one-third the retail price. Sounds incredible doesn't it? But it's true. Alabama residents who are in terested in installing active solar equipment on their homes for heat or hot water may take advantage of a new law that gives buyers a 25 percent tax credit against their Alabama income tax liability, up to $1,000. This new state law compliments an already-in-etfect federal tax credit of 40 percent, for a combined tax credit of 65 percent.

A companion law allows a 12 Vi million should be made up by imposing the existing 1.5 percent sales tax on sales of automotive vehicles and trailers by non-licensed individuals, Easterly says. If you buy a car from a dealer, you have been paying that tax. But beginning this week, that tax also will be imposed if you buy a car from a seller who is not a car dealer. There have been repeated attempts to remove the sales tax from drugs and groceries, butlber i Prescription drugs no By CLYDE H. FARNSWORTH New York Times Writer WASHINGTON The government decided Thursday to lift by Aug.

1 the interest rate ceiling on 30-month certificates of deposit offered by banks and savings and loan associations and said it would study a proposal to double interest rates on passbook savings, now a maximum 5Vt percent. The steps, taken at a meeting of Federal bank regulators and Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan, are part of a phase-out of interest rate ceilings ordered by Congress last year. The members of the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee, charged by Congress with the responsibility for phasing out interest rate ceilings, also decided at their meeting to speed up by one year the original six-year schedule set for eliminating ceilings on all savings deposits. This means the ceiling will come off by Aug.

1, 1985. The ceiling on the 30-month certificate is now 12 percent at savings and loan associations and mutual banks and ll34 percent at commercial banks. Be By MIKE SHERMAN Journal Staff Writer It has been said that nothing is so permanent as a temporary tax, but the Alabama Legislature actually removed a tax this year. Effective Wednesday, state and local taxes on prescription drugs will no longer be collected. The Revenue Department, which oversees state tax collections, has been busy notifying pharmacies across the state that prescription drug purchases wJHi be -exempt 2 Advertiser-Journal June 27, 1981 Advertiser-Journal June 27, 1981 3.