Measuring muscle color in beef using an instrumental method versus visual color scales.

摘要

The colour of sirloin in 60 intact young bulls of the Pirenaica breed was studied with a view to grading the meat quality of the beef. The correlation between visual evaluation of colour with the use of reference standards and instrumental colour measurements were analysed. Use of reference standards in the visual evaluation of beef colour yielded visual assessment results in an objective, reproducible and closely correlated with the instrumental values. Overall, classification of the muscle samples was the same using both the visual and instrumental methods in 83% of cases. The results showed that objective systems for evaluating meat colour can be developed from either visual evaluation using reference standards or instrumental measurements.