A simple but quantitative method for non-destructive monitoring of myoglobin redox forms inside the meat

This study aims at exploring a simple and quantitative method for non-destructive monitoring of the myoglobin redox forms inside of beef. The modified Beer-Lambert law was employed to derive an equation that delineates a relationship between attenuance differences and oxy-, deoxy-, and met-myoglobin proportions. An experiment with forty-three well-bled muscle beef samples during 7 days of storage was performed to validate the equation. Firstly, the reflection spectra were collected from the beef samples using a probe consisting of a light source and a light detector. Secondly, the attenuance differences, A630-615 and A578-567, were calculated from the measured spectra. Finally, these attenuance differences were placed into the derived equation to determine the proportions of the three myoglobin redox forms. Both the met-myoglobin proportion and meat oxygenation computed via the attenuance differences established a strong correlation with the ones estimated using the whole spectrum (R² > 0.88). The experimental results suggest the potential of using the attenuance at five wavelengths (524, 567, 578, 615, and 630 nm) to monitor oxy-, deoxy-, and met-myoglobin inside of beef in a simple and fast manner with little to no sample preparation.