Comparison of two instruments (G2 Tenderometer and a Lloyd Texture analyser) for measuring the shear force of cooked meat

Abstract

A comparison of the peak shear force results for a Lloyd texture analyser and a G2 Tenderometer was undertaken using both sheep and beef meat. The G2 is a new version of the Tenderometer developed originally by the Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand and uses an electric linear motor to compress the sample, but still retains the blunt wedge-shaped ‘tooth’. By comparison the Lloyd texture analyser can be used with a shearing head derived from the Warner–Bratzler type of head. Analysis of sheep samples (n = 148) and beef samples (n = 192) of the same size revealed that the average G2 Tenderometer shear force results were ~1.3 times those for the Lloyd when testing less tender samples. An examination of the repeatability within cook block samples for these less tender sub-samples revealed a coefficient of variation of ~12% for both the Lloyd and Tenderometer instruments. For the more tender samples, the average results for the two instruments did not differ significantly, but for less tender samples it was observed that the results for the Tenderometer were more variable than those for the Lloyd texture analyser. Data on shear force generated by the G2 are not equivalent to that generated by the Lloyd and use of the G2 requires more replicates to be tested per sample to achieve an equivalent level of precision to that of a Lloyd texture analyser. As a guide only, G2 Tenderometer values can by multiplied by 0.75–0.80 to give approximate Lloyd results if required for samples of average toughness, otherwise the following model can be used Lloyd = 2.49 Tenderometer0.72.