Early prediction of water-holding capacity in meat by multivariate vibrational spectroscopy

This study had the dual purpose of (a) investigating the feasibility of measuring fundamental vibrational information in fresh porcine meat using infrared (IR) absorption and Raman scattering, and (b) investigating if the vibrational spectra obtained within 1 h after slaughter contained information about the water-holding capacity (WHC) of the meat. Preliminary studies performed at a research slaughterhouse revealed a high correlation between WHC and both IR (r=0.89) and Raman spectra using Partial Least Squares Regressions (PLSR). The good results were confirmed under industrial conditions using FT-IR at-line spectroscopy. However, the latter experiment yielded a somewhat lower correlation (r=0.79). This result is, however, promising for the purpose of finding a method for classification of carcasses with regard to WHC at the slaughter line. The IR region 1800–900 cm−1 contains the best predictive information according to WHC of the porcine meat. This region covers functional group frequencies of water, protein, fat and glycogen, including the carbonyl and amide groups.