EVALUATION OF A RAPID FAT ANALYZER, BASED ON OHMIC HEATING, FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF GROUND-BEEF

A commercial rapid fat analyzer was evaluated for the classification o f ground beef. The analyzer measures the volume of fat released by a g iven amount of meat during ohmic cooking. As advertised, the equipment was simple to operate and gave a reading in less than five minutes. W hen used as recommended by the manufacturer, the analyzer was found to give biased results, with lower fat contents being systematically ove restimated while higher values were underestimated. The bias could be partially corrected, however, by homogenizing the meat sample to a pas te prior to the actual analysis. Thus modified, the method remained fa st, easy to apply, and it may be useful in the routine monitoring of g round beef, when a deviation of 2% from the actual fat value is judged acceptable.