Characterization of deterioration of fallow deer and goat meat using microbial and mid infrared spectroscopy in tandem with chemometrics

Abstract

Abstract It is established that FTIR with chemometrics is a reliable technique to predict deterioration of meat from game species and from species grown in the wild such as, fallow deer and goat. Meat was minced and stored for periods of 12–432 h and examined for FTIR, pH, lipid oxidation, microbiological analysis, colour, and sensory analysis (SA). Spectral data was analysed with PCA and LDA. PLS-R was employed to establish relationships between spectral data and the microbiological counts. From PCA it was determined that wavenumber from 1656 to 1002 cm−1 are linked to alterations during storage. LDA of spectral data was applied to sustain SA data. For fallow deer the room mean square error of prediction values for external samples were 0.75, 0.61, 0.81 and 0.73 log cfu g−1, for TVC, psychrotrophs, LAB, and Enterobacteriaceae, respectively. For goat, the corresponding values were 0.74, 0.68, 0.78 and 0.79 log cfu g−1. FTIR spectroscopy can be used as a reliable method for assessment of freshness of meat from fallow deer and goat during storage.