Guaranteeing Canadian lamb meat quality using near-infrared spectroscopy on intact rack

Lamb racks from commercial carcasses were scanned using near-infrared spectroscopy. The prediction accuracies (R 2) for meat quality traits were assessed. Prediction accuracy ranged between 0.40 and 0.94. When predicted values were used to classify meat based on quality, 88.7%–95.2% of samples were correctly classified as quality guaranteed

Mechanical and Biochemical Methods for Rigor Measurement: Relationship with Eating Quality

peer-reviewedMeat quality parameters are affected by a complex series of interacting chemical, biochemical, physical, and physiological components that determine not only the suitability for consumption and the conditions for further processing and storage but also consumer acceptability. Deep understanding and careful manipulation of these intrinsic and extrinsic factors have to be taken in account to ensure high quality of meat, with better technological properties and increased safety for consumers. Among meat quality characteristics, meat tenderness has been perceived as the most important factor governing consumer acceptability. Therefore, being able to early predict meat texture and other related parameters in order to guarantee consistent eating quality to the final consumer is one of the most sought-after goals in the meat industry. Accurate measurements of both the biochemical and mechanical characteristics that underpin muscle and its transformation into meat are key factors to an improved understanding of meat quality, but also this early-stage measurements may be useful to develop methods to predict final meat texture. It is the goal of this review to present the available research literature on the historical and contemporary analyses that could be applied in early postmortem stages (pre-rigor and rigor) to determine the biochemical and physical characteristics of the meat that can potentially impact the eating quality

Current research and emerging tools to improve fresh red meat quality

peer-reviewedA consumer’s decision to purchase red meat is guided by a combination of many interacting factors including safety, nutrition, sustainability and perception of healthiness along with a variety of sensory characteristics such as colour, marbling, tenderness, juiciness and flavour. Red meat quality is complex and influenced by many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, spanning the chain from breed/genetics through to the final end product with key influences coming from on-farm management and post-mortem processing. As a result of various factors, including consumer demands, the importance of both red meat quality and safety has in recent times come to the fore for the meat industry, with steps to meet these requirements having a large bearing on profitability. Therefore, a critical review of steps which can help control these traits is very important. Accordingly, several processing strategies were proposed at the research and industry level aiming to improve fresh red meat quality traits. This review summarises the current methods applied to improve fresh red meat quality and safety, including the advances in management and prediction tools for carcass and technological and sensory quality traits. These methods are also relevant to the safety and microbiological status of carcasses and meat produced, along with the recent developments in sensory analysis, which aim to understand the sensory properties of red meat and consumers responses. The potential of foodomics approaches is discussed under the topics of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, which help our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms behind the variation of sensory and technological quality traits and their use for the discovery of putative biomarkers. We further considered the current and emerging sequencing-based methods used to understand microbial community composition of fresh red meat

Teknik pencitraan ultrasonografi dan tomografi impedansi listrik pada potongan komersial daging sapi

Prediksi kualitas karkas dapat dilakukan dengan ultrasonografi (USG), tetapi umumnya dilakukan secara langsung setelah ternak disembelih di rumah pemotongan hewan. Pendekatan lain dengan teknologi tomografi impedansi listrik (TIL) secara non-invasif untuk prediksi kualitas karkas sebelum ternak dipotong perlu dikembangkan. Penelitian ini membandingkan teknik pencitraan USG dengan TIL pada potongan komersial daging sapi jenis rendang, has luar dan mata rusuk. Pencitraan USG mode kontras dan TIL menggunakan 4 elektroda dengan konfigurasi Wenner. Hasil pencitraan sonografi menampilkan kadar lemak dalam otot sebagai pola dengan ekogenitas lebih hiperekhoik dibandingkan jaringan otot. Resistivitas daging rendang menunjukkan nilai paling tinggi jika dibandingkan dengan daging has luar dan mata rusuk. Daging mata rusuk menampilkan sifat resistivitas paling rendah dari ketiga jenis daging lainnya.Prediksi kualitas karkas dapat dilakukan dengan ultrasonografi (USG), tetapi umumnya dilakukan secara langsung setelah ternak disembelih di rumah pemotongan hewan. Pendekatan lain dengan teknologi tomografi impedansi listrik (TIL) secara non-invasif untuk prediksi kualitas karkas sebelum ternak dipotong perlu dikembangkan. Penelitian ini membandingkan teknik pencitraan USG dengan TIL pada potongan komersial daging sapi jenis rendang, has luar dan mata rusuk. Pencitraan USG mode kontras dan TIL menggunakan 4 elektroda dengan konfigurasi Wenner. Hasil pencitraan sonografi menampilkan kadar lemak dalam otot sebagai pola dengan ekogenitas lebih hiperekhoik dibandingkan jaringan otot. Resistivitas daging rendang menunjukkan nilai paling tinggi jika dibandingkan dengan daging has luar dan mata rusuk. Daging mata rusuk menampilkan sifat resistivitas paling rendah dari ketiga jenis daging lainnya

Predicción del color y contenido de humedad en café cerezo mediante redes neuronales y regresión de mínimos cuadrados parciales

La presente investigación se enfocó en el desarrollo de modelos de predicción del color en coordenadas CIELab y el contenido de humedad de café cerezo mediante la tecnología de imágenes hiperespectrales; comparando el ajuste por un modelo de regresión lineal múltiple – PLSR (Partialleastsquareregression) y un modelo no lineal (ANN – artiftial neural network). La muestra se conformó de 200 granos de café cerezo en diferentes estados de madurez, dividiéndola en 120 granos para calibración y 80 de validación.La  muestra fue caracterizada mediante colorimetría en el espacio CIELab y determinación de la humedad. Posteriormente se adquirieron imágenes hiperespectrales de cada granos y se almacenaron en formato *.bil. El procesamiento de las imágenes se realizó mediante un sistema desarrollado e implementado en el software matemático Matlab 2010a, mediante funciones *.m e interfaces de usuario (GUIs). Se desarrollaron modelos de ajuste para cada una de las coordenadas de color y el contenido de humedad, calculándose los coeficientes de correlación en calibración y validación. Los resultados mostraron que las redes neuronales tienen un mayor ajuste en calibración con coeficientes de correlación superiores a 0,90 mientras que el PLSR genero coeficientes entre 0,42 y 0,48

The effect of muscle type and ageing on Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy classification of game meat species using a portable instrument

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2021.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Meat and meat products represent a large proportion of the human diet as it is known to provide valuable proteins, and is a good source of minerals, particularly iron, and zinc. Because of its nutritional characteristics it tends to be a commodity of demand to consumers. Game meat offers even higher nutritional attributes than any other red meat category because of its low fat and high protein levels making game meat a highly priced product thereby causing it to be an appealing target for species substitution. Also, fraudsters prefer to use products that are easy to adulterate and difficult to detect. To mitigate the fraudulent substitution of meat products, food authentication and labelling is promoted. The conventional methods of authentication such as DNA based techniques are expensive and slow for the rapidly expanding meat trade. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, a rapid non-destructive, environmentally friendly instrument is thought to be an alternative and cheap solution for on-site meat authentication purposes, although this technology has not yet been evaluated for its suitability to distinguish different South African game species and/or muscles. To evaluate the ability of NIR spectroscopy to distinguish between selected game species’ (impala (Aepyceros melampus), blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi), springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), eland (Taurotragus oryx), black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) and zebra (Equus quagga)) Longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) muscle steaks, a handheld MicroNIR™ OnSite spectrophotometer was used in a spectral range of 908–1700 nm. After the spectral data was pre-treated with smoothing, SNV-Detrend, the PCA scores plot revealed two clear clusters separating the medium-sized antelopes and large-sized species. The waveband responsible for the separation as indicated by the loadings line plot situated at 1372 nm, was associated with fat. The developed classification models revealed that the steaks could be distinguished with linear discriminant analysis (LDA), soft independent modelling by class analogy (SIMCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) at classification accuracies ranging from 68 - 100%, 67 - 100% and 70 - 96%, respectively. Also, NIR spectroscopy in combination with multivariate data analysis techniques was used to discriminate between different muscle steaks from longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL), infraspinatus (IS) and supraspinatus (SS), biceps femoris (BF), semitendinosus (ST) and semimembranosus (SM) of impala and eland species; and samples from fan fillet (FF), big drum (BD), triangle steak (TS), moon steak (MS) and rump steak (RS) of ostriches. Classification accuracies developed with PLS-DA models ranged from 85 to 100% throughout. It is interesting that good classifications accuracies were achieved when the muscles were grouped according to their anatomical locations, irrespective of the muscle used, PLS-DA models yielded accuracies of 97%, 81% and 92% for eland, impala and ostrich, respectively. Even though NIR spectroscopy in combination with multivariate data analysis techniques could successfully distinguish the different muscle types within animals, and muscles across different species, the instrument did fall short in discriminating the ageing periods of blesbok, eland, and ostrich muscles. However, it is postulated that there is still room for improvement when the device is coupled with machine learning. In summary, the handheld MicroNIR™ OnSite spectrophotometer demonstrated its capability in discriminating between different species of game meat indicating that the instrument could potentially be used in the authentication of game meat.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Vleis en vleisprodukte verteenwoordig ‘n groot deel van die menslike dieet aangesien dit waardevolle proteïene verskaf, en dit is ‘n goeie bron van minerale, veral yster en sink. As gevolg van die voedingseienskappe is dit geneig om ‘n kommoditeit van aanvraag vir verbruikers te wees. Wildsvleis bied selfs hoër voedingseienskappe as enige ander rooivleis kategorie vanweë die lae vet en hoë proteïen vlakke, wat wildsvleis ‘n duur produk maak, wat veroorsaak dat dit ‘n aantreklike teiken is vir spesie-substitusie. Bedrieërs verkies ook om produkte te gebruik wat maklik is om te vervals en wat moeilik opgespoor kan word. Om die bedrieglike substitusie van vleisprodukte te verminder, word voedselverifikasie en etikettering aangemoedig. Die konvensionele verifikasiemetodes soos DNA-gebaseerde tegnieke is duur en stadig vir die vinnig-groeiende vleishandel. Naby infrarooi (NIR) spektroskopie, ‘n vinnige, nie-vernietigende, omgewingsvriendelike instrument, word beskou as ‘n alternatiewe en goedkoop oplossing vir ‘op-perseel’ vleisverifikasie doeleindes, alhoewel hierdie tegnologie nog nie geëvalueer is vir die geskiktheid om tussen verskillende Suid-Afrikaanse wildspesies en/of spiere te onderskei nie. Die vermoë van NIR spektroskopie om te onderskei tussen Longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) spierskywe van spesifieke wildspesies (rooibok (Aepyceros melampus), blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi), springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), eland (Taurotragus oryx), swart wildebees (Connochaetes gnou) en zebra (Equus quagga)) is geëvalueer deur ‘n draagbare MicroNIR™ OnSite spektrofotometer te gebruik in ‘n spektrale reeks van 908-1700 nm. Nadat die spektrale data vooraf behandel is met SNV-Detrend gladmaaking, het die PCA tellingsplot twee duidelike groeperings getoon wat die mediumgrootte wildsbokke en die groter spesies van mekaar skei. Die golfband wat verantwoordelik is vir die skeiding wat aangedui is deur die beladingslynplot by 1372nm, is geassosieer met vet. Die ontwikkelde klassifikasiemodelle het aan die lig gebring dat daar tussen die steaks onderskeid getref kon word met lineêre diskriminante analise (LDA), sagte onafhanklike modellering volgens klasanalogie (SIMCA) en gedeeltelike kleinste kwadrate diskriminante analise (PLS-DA) met klassifikasieakkuraatheid tussen 68-100%, 67-100%, en 70-96%, onderskeidelik. NIR spektroskopie is ook in kombinasie met meerveranderlike dataontledingstegnieke gebruik om te onderskei tussen verskillende spiersnitte van longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL), infraspinatus (IS) en supraspinatus (SS), biceps femoris (BF), semitendinosus (ST) en semimembranosus (SM) van rooibok en eland spesies; en monsters van waaierfilet (FF), groot drom (BD), driehoek steak (TS), maan steak (MS) en kruis steak (RS) van volstruise. Klassifikasie-akkuraatheid wat met PLS-DA modelle ontwikkel is, het deurgaans gewissel van 85% tot 100%. Dit is interessant dat goeie klassifikasie akkuraatheid behaal is wanneer die spiere volgens hul anatomiese ligging gegroepeer is; ongeag die spiere wat gebruik is, het PLS-DA modelle akkuraathede van 97%, 81% en 92% behaal vir, onderskeidelik, eland, rooibok en volstruis. Alhoewel NIR spektroskopie in kombinasie met meervoudige data-analise tegnieke suksesvol kon onderskei tussen die verskillende spiertipes binne diere, en spiere oor verskillende spesies, het die instrument te kort geskiet wanneer dit gekom het by onderskeiding van verouderingstydperke van blesbok, eland en volstruis spiere. Daar word egter gepostuleer dat daar steeds ruimte is vir verbetering wanneer die instrument met masjienleer gekombineer word. Ten slotte, die draagbare MicroNIR™ OnSite spektrofotometer het die vermoë gedemonstreer om tussen verskillende wildsvleis spesies te onderskei, wat aandui dat die instrument moontlik gebruik kan word vir die verifikasie van wildsvleis.Doctora

MicroRNAs as biomarkers for meat quality and evidence of absorption of beef-derived microRNAs in the mammalian digestive system

The research presented herein studied the expression kinetics of microRNAs (miRs) in bovine muscle and beef. We evaluated the resilience of these small RNAs during aging, cooking and digestion processes, correlations between miRs and meat tenderness, evidence of the absorption of beef-derived miRs in mice intestines and the nutrigenomics effects of cattle feeding on animal metabolic processes and RNA expression in bovine muscle. This research also generated novel hypothesis about possible effects of food-derived miRs on gene expression in recipients.The trials presented in the first chapter studied the stability of miRs in fresh and aged bovine muscle. We evaluated the expression of genes and miRs from two bovine muscles and correlated their expressions with beef tenderness. Our data supported the hypothesis that a cluster of miRs are biomarkers for beef tenderness and can be used as a predicting tool for this quality attribute. The ability of predicting desirable consumer preferences allows the meat industry to offer a product with consistent quality and higher value. The research presented in the second chapter evaluated the bioavailability of bovine miRs after beef underwent cooking and in vitro digestion processes. Subsequently, we tested if beef-derived miRs could be absorbed in the intestines of mammalians. The small RNA sequencing showed that 413 miRs were expressed in digested beef. Data analysis suggested statistical differences in 33 miR expressions when comparing fresh vs digested samples. Surprisingly, 12 miRs were upregulated in digested samples. Overall, there were 10 predominant miRs in digested beef and four were observed in mice intestines 3 hours postprandial. Out of those four, the expression of miR-486 increased 2-fold in the intestines of mice fed beef when compared to intestines of unfed mice. Data presented in this chapter supports the hypothesis that beef-derived miRs can be absorbed in the intestines. The third chapter studied the effects of different cattle diets on beef quality, their nutrigenomics effects on animal metabolism and the expression of miRs in the lean muscle tissue. Feeding different diets led to distinct effects on meat quality, gene ontology biological processes and RNA expression in beef. Animal feeding plays an important role in modulating miRs. As a summary, research conducted in these chapters demonstrated that it is possible to target an optimal molecular profile of beef by elaborating animal diets that can increase the expression of miRs associated with desirable gene silencing pathways in humans. Future research must focus on understanding mechanism of absorption, distribution within tissues, and the effects of food exogenous miRs on genes that modulate human homeostasis

Digital Image Filtering Optimization Supporting Iberian Ham Quality Prediction

Digital images of food for later analysis tend to be heterogeneous in terms of color and luminosity. Improving these images by using filters is necessary and crucial before further processing. This paper compares the non-use of filters and the use of high-pass filters in the images of hand-cut Iberian ham that will be used in a multifractal analysis for the study of fat and its infiltration. The yielded results show that with the use of a high-pass filter, more accurate fractal dimensions were obtained, which can be featured in predictive techniques of Iberian ham quality

Caracterización de productos del cerdo ibérico mediante el análisis multifractal de imágenes

La presente tesis doctoral se presenta como compendio de publicaciones en las que se propone una metodología no destructiva para la obtención de indicadores que pueden ser usados en métodos predictivos de la calidad de productos cárnicos derivados del cerdo ibérico. Para ello se ha aplicado el análisis multifractal de imágenes digitales de esos productos. Dada la importancia del sector porcino en nuestro país resulta necesario la investigación de nuevas metodologías para el estudio de las características intrínsecas de la raza ibérica como es la infiltración grasa intramuscular que viene determinada por factores genéticos y de alimentación. A su vez, los competitivos precios sumados a la existencia de fraudes en las denominaciones comerciales hacen necesario que en este sector se desarrollen métodos de predicción que de manera rápida y barata ayuden a afrontar estos problemas. El análisis multifractal de imágenes cumple con estas dos características y actualmente está surgiendo como un método innovador en estudios relacionados con la determinación de la calidad y características de diferentes alimentos. Con esta premisa, en una primera publicación se aborda la naturaleza multifractal de la infiltración grasa de solomillo de cerdo blanco y solomillo de cerdo ibérico. Así, se diseñó y se desarrolló el sistema y condicionantes técnicos de obtención de imágenes, el sistema informático de procesado de las imágenes y la metodología del análisis multifractal. El procedimiento general consiste en la obtención de imágenes a color en condiciones homogéneas, tratamiento de las imágenes para obtener una muestra de la región de interés y posterior transformación a blanco (tejido grasoconectivo) y negro (magro), binarización de la imagen a un archivo txt y tratamiento mediante algoritmos para determinar los parámetros multifractales. Mediante este procedimiento, se determinaron los parámetros multifractales comprobando la existencia de autosemejanza en la distribución del tejido graso-conectivo y logrando, gracias a este hecho, la distinción de muestras de ambas razas. El contenido de la segunda publicación se centró en constatar la naturaleza multifractal de la infiltración grasa muestras de jamón de las cuatro denominaciones de cerdo ibérico cortadas a mano y a máquina. Se comprobó la naturaleza multifractal del tejido graso-conectivo de las muestras y la capacidad de distinción entre denominaciones para ambos tipos de corte. En la tercera publicación se propone una optimización en el procesado de las imágenes. Para ello se hace uso de un filtrado homomórfico de paso alto en las regiones de interés de los cortes de jamón ibérico cortado a mano mediante el uso de dos radios de filtro distintos, comparando los resultados del análisis multifractal de estas imágenes con los resultados de las imágenes sin filtro. El estudio llevado a cabo permite apreciar una notable mejora de los resultados para los cortes a mano de las cuatro denominaciones de jamón de cerdo ibérico. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren la idoneidad de la metodología propuesta para generar parámetros descriptores de la distribución caótica del tejido graso-conectivo que pueden ser usados para la predicción de la calidad de la carne del cerdo ibérico.This doctoral thesis is presented as a compendium of publications in which a non-destructive methodology is proposed to obtain indicators that can be used in predictive methods of the quality of meat products derived from Iberian pigs. For this aim, the use of multifractal analysis of images has been applied. Due to the importance of the Iberian pig sector in our country, it is necessary to investigate new methodologies for the study of the intrinsic characteristics of the Iberian breed such as intramuscular fat infiltration that is determined by genetic and feeding factors. At the same time, the competitive prices added to the existence of fraud in the commercial denominations make it necessary for this sector to develop prediction methods that quickly and cheaply help to face these problems. Multifractal image analysis meets these two characteristics and is currently emerging as an innovative method in studies related to the determination of the quality and characteristics of different foods. With this premise, the first study faces the multifractal nature of fatty infiltration of white pork tenderloin and Iberian pork tenderloin. In this study, the system and technical conditions for obtaining images, the computer system for image processing and the methodology of multifractal analysis were designed and developed. The general procedure consists in obtaining color images in homogeneous conditions, treatment of the images to obtain a sample of the region of interest and subsequent transformation to white (fatty-connective tissue) and black (lean), binarization of the image in a txt file and processing using algorithms to determine multifractal parameters. Through this procedure, the multifractal parameters for both pieces were determined by checking the existence of self-similarity in the distribution of fatty-connective tissue and achieving, thanks to this fact, the distinction of samples of both races. The content of the second publication focused on verifying the multifractal nature of the fatty infiltration of ham samples of the four denominations of Iberian pigs cut by hand and by machine. The multifractal nature and the ability to classify between denominations for both types of cut were checked. The third article discusses an optimization in image processing. For this purpose, a high-pass homomorphic filtering is used in the regions of interest of the Iberian ham cuts cut by hand using two different filter radii, comparing the results of the multifractal analysis of these images with the results of the unfiltered images The study results in a remarkable improvement of the results for the hand cuts of the four designations of Iberian pork ham. The results obtained suggest the suitability of the proposed methodology to generate parameters that describe the chaotic distribution of fatty-connective tissue that can be used to predict the quality of Iberian pig meat