Measurement and prediction of pork colour

The extent to which instrumental colour determinations by FOPu (light scattering), Göfo (reflectance) and Labscan II (CIE L*, CIE a* and CIE b*, hue and chroma) are related to the Japanese colour grades was studied. Additionally, four on-line methods: pH1, FOP1, PQM1 (conductivity) and DDLT (Double Density Light Transmission, analogous to Capteur Gras/Maigre), were evaluated for their ability to predict subjectively and objectively colour. One hundred and twenty samples of m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum, from animals of different genotypes, were analysed. Of the instrumental colour determinations, CIE L* (r=-0.82), FOPu (r=-0.70) and Göfo (r=0.70) were best correlated with the Japanese colour scores. The Japanese colour grades could be predicted by the on-line instruments, pH1, FOP1, PQM1 and DDLT, with determination coefficients between 15 and 28%. Ultimate meat colour, determined by Japanese colour standards, FOPu, Göfo and CIE L*, was better predicted by DDLT than by the classic on-line instruments: FOP1, pH1 and PQM1, although the standard error of the estimate was similar for all instruments. This means that DDLT, although originally designed for estimating lean meat percentage, can additionally give information about meat quality, in particular colour. However, it must be stressed that the colour estimate by DDLT refers to a population of animals, rather than to individual pigs, because of the number of erroneously assigned samples.