Analysis of meat pigments with tissue spectrophotometer TS-200.

The colour of meat and rice flour pastes containing known amounts of myoglobin and the colour of intact beef and pork samples were analyzed with tissue spectrophotometer TS-200. The differences in the spectra of myoglobin among three types of derivatives were successfully distinguished with this instrument. In addition, there is a close relationship between I(HB) value, a parameter for estimating the content of pigments in animal tissues, and myoglobin content in model systems (rice flour paste and meat paste). Especially, the I(HB) value is proportional to myoglobin content in intact beef and pork meat whose myoglobin is mostly in the state of oxymyoglobin and/or deoxymyoglobin: y = 208·26 x + 6·72, where y is the I(HB) value, x is the myoglobin content (%) and r = 0·94.