Blood volume dependence of meat permittivity using dielectric mixing rules

This paper presents the prediction of meat permittivity based on its blood volume. The effective permittivity of meat was calculated using dielectric mixing rules. Meat was treated as a homogeneous mixture consisting of blood embedded into a background medium of muscle fibers. The volume fraction of blood with respect to muscle fibers was varied and the effective permittivity as a function of frequency was calculated. The measured permittivity of meat was included for comparison and validation purpose. It is found that meat with 90 % blood content consistently has higher effective permittivity compared to meat with 60 % of blood content, irrespective of frequency applied. The results suggested that based on blood volume, it is possible to distinguish meat by measuring its permittivity.