Discrimination of beef dark cutters using visible and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

Abstract

Prieto, N., Lopez-Campos, O., Zijlstra, R. T., Uttaro, B. and Aalhus J. L. 2014. Discrimination of beef dark cutters using visible and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 94: 445–454. This study examined the potential of visible and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (Vis-NIRS) to segregate dark cutters from normal beef. One hundred and twenty beef carcass sides were selected from a slaughter plant by experienced graders according to their carcass grade: 60 A grade carcasses (normal) and 60 B4 grade carcasses (dark cutters). At approximately 48 h post mortem, a 2.5-cm-thick steak (at ∼7/8th thoracic vertebrae) was removed, vacuum packaged and frozen at −25°C until spectra collection. Four Vis-NIRS analyses were performed with different instruments and sample presentation. Partial least squares discriminant analysis based on Vis-NIR spectra correctly classified 95% of the intact non-oxygenated beef samples from both A and B4 grade carcasses using a portable LabSpec®4 spectrometer...