DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN FRESH AND FROZEN-THEN-THAWED BEEF M-LONGISSIMUS DORSI BY COMBINED VISIBLE-NEAR INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY - AFEASIBILITY STUDY

Investigations into the classification of meat samples as either fresh or frozen-then-thawed have been performed using near infrared spectro scopy and two chemometric techniques. factorial discriminant analysis and SIMCA. Work was performed on meat pieces using a fibre optic probe for spectral acquisition. A sample of meat (m. longissimus dorsi) fro m each of 32 animals of a single species (female Hereford-cross) was c ollected from a commercial abattoir. Using a standard freeze-thaw regi me, results reported show a significant rate of discrimination between fresh and frozen-then-thawed beef for the factorial discriminant proc edure; SIMCA was less successful. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.