MEAT QUALITY DETERMINATION WITH REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY

Abstract

Besides the growing demand for meat products, their quality has been increasingly preconized by consumers. By definition, meat quality can be perceived by their sensory attributes (color, texture, taste and smell), technological (pH and water holding capacity), nutrient (chemical composition), health (absence of infectious agents) and also by ethical attributes surrounding its production. Conventional methods for determining the quality of the meat are destructive, time consuming and use large amounts of sample. The reflectance spectroscopy, an analytical technique based on the achievement of spectral readings of the wavelengths of the samples, it has been highlighted by the absence of these negative characteristics. The effectivation of using non-destructive technologies in meat can result in practical benefits for industry. Researchers have aimed to identify high correlations between the conventional methods of analysis with the reflectance values. To determine the chemical composition of meat results have been satisfactory, but for the other attributes that technology has shown limitations, with widely divergent results in the literature.