The Measurement of Light Scattering Properties at 45 min Post Mortem for Prediction of Pork Quality

Abstract

Meat quality measurements were carried out on 123 slaughter pigs at 45 min post mortem. The measurements consisted of determinations of light scattering with carcass grading equipment, i.e. the Danish Fat-o-Meat’er (FOM) and the New Zealand Hennessy Grading Probe 2 (HGP), and the Fibre Optic Probe (FOP), in combination with pH measurements in the lumbar region of M. longissimus and M. semimembranosus. Additionally, meat quality was evaluated visually and by tristimulus colour measurements on M. longissimus lumborum at 24 h post mortem.

The mutual correlations between the various meat quality characteristics were quite low, despite their high levels of significance. The low correlations could be explained by the small variation in muscle colour that was present in the material under study. It was concluded that measurements of light scattering have limitations, only a portion of the PSE carcasses could be detected by using these measurements. Because of the small variation in muscle colour we found it impossible to clearly distinguish accuracy differences among the three methods studied. A suggestion was made that for predicting pork quality, reflectance measurements may be improved by a shift of the measuring position from the thoracic to the lumbar region of M. longissimus.