What is meat tenderizer?

Meat tenderizers soften tough meat by breaking down collagen with enzymes. Most powdered tenderizers use the plant enzyme papain as the tenderizing agent.

Commercial meat tenderizers containing enzymes are available for consumers to use, but they are effective only on fairly thin cuts of meat because they penetrate to a depth of only ½ to 2 millimeters. In general tenderizers work on the surface of the meat.

Meat tenderizers contain enzymes that break down proteins of muscle, fibers and connective tissue. They are sprinkled on meat which as then pierced with a fork to drive the enzymes below the surface, where they hydrolyses cell proteins tissue where activated by the heat of preparation.

Meat tenderizers enzymes extracted from a number of plants, including papaya, pineapple fig, kiwi and ginger.

The enzymes act slowly at refrigerator or room temperature, and some five times faster between 60 and 70 °C, so nearly all the tenderizing action takes place during cooking.

Some of the best tenderizers for meats have an alcohol base as beer and hard coder. The fermentation chemical process gives these products the tenderizing quality.
What is meat tenderizer?