Nondestructive assessment of beef-marbling grade using hyperspectral imaging technology

The objective of this study was to assess the beef-marbling grade using hyperspectral imaging technology. A hyperspectral scanning imaging system was developed to collect hyperspectral images in the spectral region of 400-1100 nm. Original turned line-scanning hyperspectral images were transformed into three-dimensional spectral data with a computer program developed by authors. The maximal ratio of gray value of fat and lean in each band was used to select characteristic bands. As a result, the images at 530nm were used to differentiate beef-marbling. Three characteristic parameters were extracted, and used to establish prediction model by multiple linear regression (MLR) methods. The MLR model gave a good result with R² = 0.92, SE_CV = 0.45. The research demonstrated that hyperspectral imaging technology is useful for nondestructive determination of beef marbling level.