A method to derive reflectance spectra and colour coordinates of meat
by measurement of reflectance at only three wavelengths, 480, 570 and
620 nm has been developed by treating the spectra of a meat sample as
a linear combination of the spectra of the three major myoglobin deriv
atives (reduced myoglobin, oxymyoglobin and metmyoglobin). Applied to
300 samples of Semitendinosus and Longissimus dorsi veal muscles at di
fferent times post mortem (24 h to 9 d), colour differences Delta E b
etween the derived spectra and the real ones were about 1.5 units. The
total pigment content, with high correlation with the extraction meth
od (P <0.02), and the relative proportions of the derivatives can also
be estimated. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.