Utilization of Bioelectrical Impedance to Predict Intramuscular Fat and Physicochemical Traits of the Beef Longissimus Thoracis et Lumborum Muscle.

João Afonso,Raul Morais,José Silva,Cristina Guedes,Virgínia Santos,Alfredo Teixeira,Severiano Silva

doi:10.3390/foods9060836

Abstract

The bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a non-destructive technique that has been successfully used to assess the body and carcass composition of farm species. This study aimed to predict intramuscular fat (IMF) and physicochemical traits in the longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle (LM) of beef, using BIA. These traits were evaluated in LM samples of 52 crossbred heifer carcasses. The BIA was performed in LM, using a 50 Hz frequency high precision impedance converter system. A correlation analysis of the studied variables was performed. Then a stepwise with a k-folds cross validation procedure was used to modelling the prediction of IMF and physicochemical traits from BIA parameters (24.5% ≤ CV ≤ 47.3%). Wide variation was found for IMF and BIA parameters. In general, correlations of BIA parameters with IMF and physicochemical traits were moderate to high and were similar for all BIA parameters (−0.50 ≤ r ≤ 0.50 only for total pigments, a* and pH48). It was possible to predict IMF and physicochemical traits from BIA. The best fit explained 79.3% of the variation in IMF, while for physicochemical traits the best fits were for sarcomere length and shear force (64.4% and 60.5%, respectively). The results confirmed the potential of BIA for objective measurement of meat quality.

Highlights

Meat is a nutritious and popular food, which provides high biological value proteins and important micronutrients, and in recent years increasing attention has been put on its quality and safety [1].Meat quality is affected by several factors throughout the production line and identifying and ensuring meat quality remains an ongoing challenge for meat processors [2]
The exception was the coefficient of variation (CV) of 47.3% for intramuscular fat (IMF), with the IMF content of the samples ranging between 1.65% and 16.53%
The present results confirmed the potential interest of using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) parameters for objective measurement of meat characteristics, since all traits of meat quality analyzed were correlated with

Summary

Introduction

Meat is a nutritious and popular food, which provides high biological value proteins and important micronutrients, and in recent years increasing attention has been put on its quality and safety [1].Meat quality is affected by several factors throughout the production line and identifying and ensuring meat quality remains an ongoing challenge for meat processors [2]. The traditional evaluation of meat quality such as intramuscular fat (IMF) and physicochemical traits involves destructive, expensive and time-consuming methods [3]. To overcome these limitations, several non-destructive, precise, and fast techniques have been developed and successfully applied in meat quality assessment. Over the past two decades, there have been several emerging techniques, those based on imaging and spectroscopic principles [4,5]. Concerning spectroscopic techniques, the emphasis has been put on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) techniques [8,9]; hyperspectral imaging systems [10,11], Foods 2020, 9, 836; doi:10.3390/foods9060836 www.mdpi.com/journal/foods

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