Predicting meat quality traits of ovine m. semimembranosus, both fresh and following freezing and thawing, using a hand held Raman spectroscopic device

Complementary studies were conducted to determine the potential for a Raman spectroscopic hand held device to predict meat quality traits of fresh lamb m. semimembranosus (topside) after ageing and freezing/thawing. Spectra were collected from 80 fresh muscles at 24 h and 5 d PM, another 80 muscles were measured at 24 h, 5 d and following freezing/thawing. Shear force, cooking loss, sarcomere length, colour, particle size, collagen content, pH24, pHu, purge and thaw loss were also measured. Results indicated a potential to predict pHu (R2cv = 0.59), pH24 (R2cv = 0.48) and purge (R2cv = 0.42) using spectra collected 24 h PM. L* could be predicted using spectra collected 24 h (R2cv = 0.33) or 5 d PM (R2cv = 0.33). This suggests that Raman spectroscopy is suited to identifying carcases which deviate from the normal metabolic processes and related meat quality traits.