Prediction of pork quality at the slaughter line using a portable Raman device

Raman spectroscopy is providing a fingerprint of the early postmortem metabolism in meat. In this study, for the first time, Raman spectroscopy is shown to measure and predict quality traits of intact muscles at the slaughtering process. Porcine semimembranosus muscles (N=151) were measured 30-60 min post mortem at the veterinarian line of a commercial abattoir using a prototype handheld Raman device. The Raman spectra were regressed against technologically important quality traits as measured with classic reference methods. Predicting pH35, pH24 and drip loss with PLSR yielded coefficients of determination of 0.75, 0.58 and 0.83 and root mean square errors of cross validation of 0.09, 0.05 and 0.6%, respectively. This is demonstrating the on-line potential of early postmortem Raman spectra to measure pH35 and to predict pH24 and drip loss.