[Measurement of pork tenderness by using steady spatially-resolved spectroscopy]

Tenderness is one of the main sensory and eating qualities of meat. Conventional measurement of tenderness is a time-consuming and invasive method. Using steady spatially-resolved spectroscopy, a multi-channel visible and near infrared spectroscopy instrument was established to obtain the reduced scattering coefficient mu's. of porcine longissimus muscle samples. After spectra collection, each fresh meat sample was divided into two parts, one was tested by means of C-LM4 tenderness instrument, and the other was measured by conventional method. The results showed that reduced scattering coefficient of the samples was significantly correlated to fresh meat shear force values (R2 = 0.8349) at 700 nm. Also, there was a significant correlation between fresh meat shear force values and shear force values by conventional method (R2 = 0.7716). In conclusion, the potential of the steady spatially-resolved spectroscopy technique as a rapid and non-invasive tool to measure tenderness of pork was found.