Fibre‐optic spectrophotometry for predicting lipid content, pH and processing loss of comminuted meat slurry

Abstract

SummaryA fibre‐optic light guide was used to measure the internal reflectance (interactance from 400 to 1000nm) of slurries of comminuted meat. For mixtures of pork adipose tissue and beef muscle with a low connective tissue content, internal reflectance at 1000nm was correlated with lipid content (r=0.99, P<0.005) and with cooking loss (r=0.99, P<0.005), and at 930nm with centrifugation fluid loss (r=0.77, P<0.005). For pork muscle varying in pH but adjusted to a constant lipid content, internal reflectance at 780nm was correlated with pH (r= ‐0.80, P<0.01), at 690nm with centrifugation fluid loss (r=0.74, P<0.025) and at 710nm with cooking loss (r=0.63, P<0.05). The additive nature of these correlations favours the use of internal reflectance to predict the functional properties of meat slurries.