Recent methods for predicting quality of whole meat.

The world of meat faces a permanent need for new methods of meat quality evaluation. Researchers want improved techniques to deepen their understanding of meat features. Expectations of consumers for meat quality grow constantly, which induces the necessity of quality control at the levels of slaughtering, meat cutting, and distribution. This article is focused on techniques intended to predict technological and sensory qualities from measurements carried out on fresh intact meat. pH has been measured for a long time, but its on-line determination still progresses through automation. In the laboratory, NMR provides new insights on WHC mechanisms. Image processing has considerably improved the assessment of meat appearance. Developments of techniques for prediction of toughness are in progress, either directly, through ultrasonic analysis or NIR reflectance, or indirectly, through determination of connective tissue content by fluorescence probes. Control of authenticity benefits from the last developments of molecular biology and analytical chemistry. However, implementation of methods for meat quality evaluation has been very limited in the industry. The reasons for that situation are analyzed. Among the techniques recently described, the most promising for large-scale meat quality evaluation are considered to be ultrasonic analysis, image processing and NIR spectroscopy.