Use of image analysis to determine fat and connective tissue in salmon muscle

Abstract

An attempt was made to measure connective tissue and fat in salmon fillets using image analysis. Farmed salmon fillets were digitized by video camera and transferred to an image analysis program. A Laplace transformation was performed, and the image was segmented into different scales of grey. Particle analysis was applied to the binary pictures to calculate the percentage of white stripes in the total surface of the fillet, which were related to the percentage of connective tissue (CT) and fat. Although low correlation coefficients were obtained, it could be assumed that the video image analysis method is sensitive enough to detect great variations in fat content, which could prove useful in industrial applications. In contrast, CT was found to have less influence on the visual appraisal of the fillet surface.