Non-destructive determination of the intramuscular fat content in pork chops by ultrasound.

摘要

The present study aimed to investigate the use of spectral analysis of backscattered ultrasound signals from a diagnostic B-mode device to non-destructively estimate the intramuscular fat content (IMF) of longissimus muscle in pigs. 115 commercially produced carcass sides from the same genetic origin at the 2nd/3rd last rib parallel and perpendicular to the muscle fibre direction of the longissimus muscle were studied. As for the estimation of intramuscular fat content by means of spectral analysis of backscattered ultrasound signals, an average prediction error of 0.36% IMF arises at best using averaged parameters from replicated measurements parallel and perpendicular to the muscle fibre direction of warm carcasses. Thus, about 60% of the variation of IMF can be explained by the acoustic parameters..