Prediction of tenderness in bovine longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles using Raman spectroscopy

CORIA, MARIA SUMAMPA; CASTAÑO LEDESMA, MARÍA SOFÍA; GÓMEZ ROJAS, JORGE RAÚL; GRIGIONI, GABRIELA; PALMA, GUSTAVO ADOLFO; BORSARELLI, CLAUDIO DARÍO

Animal Bioscience

Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies(AAAP)

Año: 2023

2765-0189

Objective: Evaluate Raman spectroscopy technique as a non-invasive tool to predict meat qualitytraits on Braford longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle.Methods: Thirty samples of muscle from Braford steers were analyzed by classical meat qualitytechniques and by Raman spectroscopy with 785 nm laser excitation. Water holding capacity (WHC), intramuscular fat content (IMF), cooking loss (CL), and texture profile analysis recordinghardness, cohesiveness, and chewiness were determined, along with fiber diameter and sarcomerelength by scanning electron microscopy. Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) analysis was used todifferentiate tender and tough meat groups.Results: Higher values of cohesiveness and CL, together with lower values of WHC, IMF, andshorter sarcomere were obtained for tender meat samples than for the tougher ones. Raman spectraanalysis allows tender and tough sample differentiation. The correlation between the qualityattributes predicted by Raman and the physical measurements resulted in values of R2 = 0.69 forhardness and 0,58 for WBSF. Pearson's correlation coefficient of hardness (r = 0.84) and WBSF (r= 0.79) parameters with the Raman signal at 1003 cm-1, suggests that the content of this amino acidcould explain the differences between samples.Conclusions: Raman spectroscopy with 785 nm laser excitation is a suitable and accurate techniqueto identify beef with different quality attributes.