title: Relationships between marbling measures across principal muscles.
abstract: As marbling is a principal input into many grading systems it is important to have an accurate and reliable measurement procedure. This paper compares three approaches to measuring marbling: trained personnel, near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and image analysis. One 25mm slice of meat was utilised from up to 12 cuts from 48 carcasses processed in Poland and France. Each slice was frozen to enable a consistent post-slaughter period then thawed for image analysis. The images were appraised by experienced beef graders and the sample used to determine fat content by NIR. We find that image analysis based marbling measures are capturing something different to trained personnel and that there is a strong relationship between near infrared spectroscopy and trained personnel. Finally, we demonstrate that marbling measures taken on one muscle can be predictive of marbling in other muscles in the same carcase. This is particularly important for cut based models such as the Meat Standards Australia system.
authors.affiliation: Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Department of Technique and Food Development, Faculty of Human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, (WULS-SGGW), 159C Nowoursynowska Str., 02-776 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: malgorzata_konarska1@sggw.pl.
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konarska
authors.affiliation: Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro 080-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Keigo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuchida
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
authors.forename: Garth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tarr
authors.affiliation: Birkenwood Pty. Ltd, 431 Timor Rd, Murrurundi, NSW 2338, Australia.
authors.forename: Rodney J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Polkinghorne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D002417:Cattle; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000032:analysis; D005602:France; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry*; D011044:Poland; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D000069466:Red Meat / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D014481:United States; D016885:United States Department of Agriculture
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats
keywords: Beef carcase classification; Beef grading systems; Correlation analysis; Exploratory data analysis; Marbling; Marbling assessment