Adaptation of microplate reader for measuring oxidative rancidity in meat products

A method to measure 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) which was capable of processing large numbers of samples, reducing processing time, and using smaller amounts of reagents was developed. Ground beef, ground pork and ham were analyzed to test the procedure. Acid distillation and aqueous extraction methods for measuring TBARS were adapted for use with a cell culture plate reader (MR5000 Microplate Reader, Dynatech Technologies, Inc., Chantilly, VA) to measure concentration of TBARS. Thiobarbituric acid values obtained by this method are comparable to values obtained by aqueous extraction or distillation procedures using larger quantities of samples and reagents. The method used microliter quantities of reagents and processed a larger quantity of samples than traditional techniques within a shorter time frame.