Tumbling is a key step in the manufacture of processed meat. However mechanical treatment undergone by meat pieces which determine process yield and product quality cannot be characterized in tumblers. This paper describes a new laboratory device to study the effect of controlled mechanical treatments on mass transfer, protein solubilisation, histological changes... It was designed to reproduce on an individual piece of meat the constraints and deformations that are promoted in tumblers of various designs and sizes. In addition, experiments carried out with pork Semimembranosus muscles showed that, compared with raw meat,, NaCl transfer increases by 20 % when mechanical treatment is applied beforehand brining and by 200 % when it applied during brining.