Contribution to improving the meat water holding capacity test by the filter paper press method. A comparison of three methods for measuring areas.

Tests of meat water holding capacity (WHC) by the filter paper press method in bovine muscles were assayed. Two rapid methods to evaluate the liquid impregnation areas on the filter paper were used in opposition to the classic planimetric method. A special "reticular filter paper" for direct measurement of spot areas was designed. Data from 1113 meat WHC tests of Longissimus dorsi, Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus, Biceps femoris and Adductor muscles were assayed. It was verified that the reticular method has a good precision with coefficient of variation, CV%, between 4.04 and 2.64% for meat 'M' and total 'T' areas, respectively. The accuracy of the reticular method was also very high, with R(2) = 99.54% for 'T' and 97.06% for 'M'. The caliper rule method showed an acceptable accuracy, with values R(2) = 98.05 and 90.76% for 'T' and 'M', respectively. Their precision, however was somewhat smaller than reticular measures, with CV% between 5.51 and 7.37% for 'T' and 'M', respectively.