Contemporary chemical lean determination used in the Australian meat processing industry: A method comparison

Area of Science:

• Food Science and Technology
• Analytical Chemistry
• Meat Science

Background:

• Chemical Lean (CL) quantifies lean meat versus fat content in meat products.
• Accurate CL determination is a mandatory AUS-MEAT Ltd. requirement for Australian meat exports.
• Diverse analytical methods are currently employed in the Australian meat industry for CL measurement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the performance of various approved methods for Chemical Lean determination.
• To assess the suitability of different analytical techniques for CL measurement in the Australian meat industry.

Main Methods:

• Method comparison involved Soxhlet fat extraction and microwave moisture analysis.
• Instrumental techniques evaluated included Near Infrared Reflectance/Transmittance, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and X-Ray.
• Statistical analyses employed Passing-Bablok regression, Bland-Altman plots, and robust z-scores.

Main Results:

• All evaluated methods demonstrated satisfactory performance for Chemical Lean determination.
• The study confirmed the suitability of both wet chemical and instrumental techniques.
• Results indicate consistency across a range of analytical approaches for CL measurement.

Conclusions:

• Multiple methods are suitable for Chemical Lean determination in the Australian meat industry.
• The findings support the continued use of approved analytical techniques for export meat products.
• This research validates the reliability of various CL measurement approaches for industry compliance.