Meat Quality Analysis

Advanced Evaluation Methods, Techniques, and Technologies

Ashim Kumar Biswas, Prabhat Mandal

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128192337
• eBook ISBN: 9780128192344
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Zoology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Meat Quality Analysis: Advanced Evaluation Methods, Techniques, and Technologies takes a modern approach to identify a compositional and nutritional analysis of meat and meat products, post-mortem aging methods, proteome analysis for optimization of the aging process, lipid profiles, including lipid mediated oxidations, meat authentication and traceability, strategies and detection techniques of potential food-borne pathogens, pesticide and drug residues, including antimicrobial growth promoters, food preservatives and additives, and sensory evaluation techniques. This practical reference will be extremely useful to researchers and scientists working in the meat industry, but will also be valuable to students entering fields of meat science, quality and safety.- Presents focused detection techniques for reducing or eliminating foodborne pathogens from meat- Includes strategies and methods on how to better understand meat authenticity and traceability, including meat speciation- Provides tables, figures and illustrations to facilitate a better understanding of techniques and methods

Section 1

Current perspectives of meat quality evaluation

Outline

• Chapter 1 Current perspectives of meat quality evaluation: techniques, technologies, and challenges

Chapter 1

Current perspectives of meat quality evaluation: techniques, technologies, and challenges

Ashim Kumar Biswas¹ and Prabhat Kumar Mandal², ¹Division of Post-Harvest Technology, ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, India, ²Department of Livestock Products Technology, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research, Puducherry, India

Abstract

Meat quality and safety are highly relevant issues for the meat industry worldwide as they are directly linked to public health and welfare. Consumers want the meat they eat to not only taste better but also be safe, nutritious, and have an extended shelf life. Thus consumers’ concern about the meat food quality has led to the development and application of analytical techniques for the evaluation of meat quality and safety. Over the years many analytical techniques have been developed but very few of them find routes for industrial applications. The meat industry needs reliable techniques for meat quality evaluation in order to certify and keep “guaranteed trust marks” on the packaging. Indeed both the meat industry and researchers are now facing complex challenges to comply with consumers’ demands on quality. Conventional techniques are “golden tests” but not selective enough, and also suffer from overcomplexity and are not meet compliance with the regulations. So the aim of this chapter is to focus on the current state of meat quality evaluation, substantiated with background information, along with a brief description of advanced meat quality evaluation techniques. This chapter also discusses the major challenges encountered in the application of advanced meat quality evaluation techniques.

Keywords

Meat quality analysis; image processing; sensors; array; proteomics; genomics; meat traceability; food additives; preservatives; rapid methods; spectroscopy; NMR; chromatography

Chapter Outline

• 1.1 Introduction 3
• 1.2 Techniques and technologies 5
  • 1.2.1 Nutritional composition 5
  • 1.2.2 Physical and structural quality 6
  • 1.2.3 Meat traceability and authentication 7
  • 1.2.4 Food preservatives and additives 9
  • 1.2.5 Freshness and pathogen identification 9
  • 1.2.6 Chemical contaminants 10
  • 1.2.7 Sensory quality 12
• 1.3 Challenges 13
• References 15

1.1 Introduction

The meat we eat is an integral component of the human diet. It contains essential nutrients which help to maintain normal physiological functions, improve immunity, and prevent certain diseases including malnutrition. When such foods contain unauthorized chemicals or do not meet the required standards for nutritional composition, sensory properties, food preservatives, microbial pathogens, residues of pesticides, veterinary drugs, and/or heavy metals, potential health risks for consumers may arise. The consumers’ requirements are healthful muscle foods that not only taste good but are also safe, fresh, natural, and contain fewer chemical additives, such as preservatives. However, all these conditions can be organized into quality criteria indexed to physical, chemical, and microbial properties that can be objectively quantified through robust and sensitive techniques. The traditional approach of meat analysis using mechanical and chemical methods was robust, but all of the methods suffered from overcomplexity. Although the experienced inspectors carrying out meat quality evaluations ensure that the occurrence of misclassifications is rare, this manual method is subjective, time-consuming, and thus not suitable for online monitoring (Xiong et al., 2017). So to overcome this deficiency of the traditional methods and to satisfy the regulatory requirements, modern technologies are to be applied in meat quality evaluation since they are robust, sensitive, selective, qualitative, and quantitative. These techniques may use cost-intensive sophisticated instruments at cutting edge labs, but often they can be fabricated locally using only simple probes derived from those labs. Meat processors outfitted with these kinds of probes could gain tighter process control for production feasibility, quality sorting, and automation and thus provide consumers with certified products bearing quality seals and trust marks (Damez and Clerjon, 2012).

Thus in meat science the meat quality analysis actually integrates systematically all branches of science including mathematical science in order to explain the modest characteristics of meat. Meat quality analysis therefore exploits the basic principles and applications of various advanced techniques since meat science is no longer simply an academic discipline. The impact of this knowledge has also penetrated to the molecular level for better evaluation of meat quality using genome analysis, proteomics tools, sensor-based techniques, DNA microarray techniques, and loop-mediated isothermal amplifications (LAMP). Further, the spectacular technological advances and the rapid expansion of scientific knowledge have revolutionized our understanding of biological processes for the production of safe meat products. Thus many in the scientific community have the belief that the meat industry will become a prominent industry in the coming era.

There is a diverse array of meat quality analysis for which analytical chemistry plays a crucial role, including the identification of meat enzymes or protein markers for optimizing meat maturation; assessing structural integrity including morphology, physical, biophysical characteristics; sensory properties including meat color development; the detection of adulterants and product tempering; meat authenticity; the characterization of the chemical composition of meat; the impact of production and processing practices on the generation or inactivation of toxic chemicals; the compliance with food and trade laws to ensure safety and traceability; thermal properties; and microbiological impedance. All of these analyses have critical roles in assuring product safety, quality, and palatability. Further, in recent years, it has been intimidated “one health program” since animal foods are directly linked with the human health. Thus meat is considered today not only a source of essential nutrients but also an affordable way to prevent future diseases.

To tackle these problems a numbers of opportunities have been sought in various ways that are quite impressive, for example, a tailor-made meat product given to a particular group of people to promote health and well-being based on their genome sequences (Herrero et al., 2012). Another well-known technique, proteomics, is the study of the proteome, the protein complement of the genome that is expressed, and modified following expression, by the entire genome in the lifetime of a cell. Today proteomics is a scientific discipline that promises to bridge the gap between our understanding of the genome sequence and cellular behavior. It can be viewed as more of a biological assay or tool for determining gene function. Thus the application of “omics” technologies such as genomics, proteomics, foodomics, nutrigenomics, and metagenomics may solve certain problems that were untouchable until a few years ago. But success for the application of all these new advanced technologies is reliant on the depth of knowledge in the relevant area and the requirement to use this knowledge in a rational manner.

Thus meat quality evaluation is considered as an important area to assure the quality and safety of finished products. This chapter will discuss the emerging techniques and technologies employed in meat quality analysis together with the current difficulties and future challenges.

1.2 Techniques and technologies

1.2.1 Nutritional composition

The importance of nutritional levelling of fresh and finished products is high for informing and guiding the consumers about the quality of products since many literature reports have indicated the negative influence of nutrition on health. It has been implicated that high fat intake aggravates the risk of coronary heart diseases, cancers, atherosclerosis, etc., while high glucose and sodium (salt) intakes give rise to the risks of diabetes and hypertension, respectively. On the other hand the intake of high amounts of fiber, prebiotics, antioxidants, certain vitamins, and minerals ameliorate the negative effects. X-ray imaging, particularly dual X-ray energy imaging (DXA), offers useful capabilities for successful evaluation of meat quality in terms of fat, bone, and lean meat content and has been in use for 30 years in the meat industry, though now it seems to be a slow measurement technique (Mercier et al., 2006). Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques are now also in use (Clerjon and Bonny, 2011; Xiong et al., 2017) and NMR microimaging on meat samples has the capability to quantitatively characterize the fat, in addition to its inherent function for checking meat quality. The MRI method uses the principle of diffusion-weighted imaging of muscle for the determination of apparent diffusion coefficients of myofibers and lipids. Ultrasound works on the principle of analyzing the acoustic parameters of waves propagating in a medium.

Most of the applications of ultrasound imaging so far have been concentrated on predicting the body composition of live animals, including intramuscular fat percentage, lean content, and fat tissue thickness (Xiong et al., 2017). Ultrasound has the capability to assess and characterize the muscle samples based on acoustic wave propagation through meat. For example, if acoustic waves are propagating through fat and collagen, they produce different waves and this helps in discriminating different muscle types on the basis of fat and collagen content (Morlein et al., 2005). Similarly the near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique has been successfully deployed for rapid nondestructive determination of fatty acid composition in dry-cured sausages (Fernandez-Cabanas et al., 2011). Recently several image processing techniques (MRI, fluorescence imaging, hyperspectral imaging, thermal imaging) were developed and also applied for the determination of muscular tissue (Veberg et al., 2006; Burfoot et al., 2011; Adedeji et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2010). All of these image processing techniques were applied for the determination of the chemical composition of meat from all species with a great degree of variation in success. However, thermal image processing techniques were focused on temperature differences over a large range, which is an indirect method for the determination of the surface fat covering of carcasses, since lower the surface temperature indicated then the lower the fat covering (Costa et al., 2010). Salt distribution analysis in salted meat products by the use of X-ray computed tomography was also a major application (Segtnan et al., 2009), while micro- and macronutrients (protein, fat, amino acid, fatty acid, organic acid, vitamins, minerals) can be detected using DXA imaging, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (Damez and Clerjon, 2012).

1.2.2 Physical and structural quality

In meat processing the determination of physical and structural quality is of the utmost importance for the proper merchandizing of the finished produce. The meat industry around the globe is seeking quick and accurate methods for authenticating quality and keeping trust marks on the packaging to maintain consumers’ faith in finished products. Recently Damez and Clerjon (2008) reviewed some fast and robust invasive and noninvasive biophysical techniques for predicting the structural quality of meat. These can be used for the measurement of meat components (collagen content, marbling, water content, fat content, specific proteins detection, salt content, water holding capacity, PSE (pale, soft exudative), DFD (dark, firm, dry), etc.) or their organization (collagen organization, collagen typing, fat organization, myofiber organization, myofiber spacing, myofiber diameter, myofiber density, myofilaments structure changes, Z line degradation, sarcomere length, endomysium structure, etc.), either dire...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Section 1: Current perspectives of meat quality evaluation
• Section 2: Advances in carcass quality evaluation and nutritional composition of meat
• Section 3: Postmortem ageing and meat quality evaluation
• Section 4: Molecular basis of meat colour development and detection
• Section 5: Meat authenticity and traceability
• Section 6: Chemical residues in meat and their detection techniques
• Section 7: Food preservatives/additives in meat and their detection
• Section 8: Detection and prevention of lipid oxidation products
• Section 9: Strategies for elimination and detection of foodborne pathogens
• Section 10: Modern biological concept of meat deterioration and its detection
• Section 11: Proteomic and genomic tools in meat quality evaluation
• Section 12: Sensory evaluation techniques
• Index