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Review
. 2018 Jan 28;18(2):377.
doi: 10.3390/s18020377.

Non-Destructive Spectroscopic Techniques and Multivariate Analysis for Assessment of Fat Quality in Pork and Pork Products: A Review

Christopher T Kucha  1 , Li Liu  2 , Michael O Ngadi  3
Affiliations
Review

Non-Destructive Spectroscopic Techniques and Multivariate Analysis for Assessment of Fat Quality in Pork and Pork Products: A Review

Christopher T Kucha et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Fat is one of the most important traits determining the quality of pork. The composition of the fat greatly influences the quality of pork and its processed products, and contribute to defining the overall carcass value. However, establishing an efficient method for assessing fat quality parameters such as fatty acid composition, solid fat content, oxidative stability, iodine value, and fat color, remains a challenge that must be addressed. Conventional methods such as visual inspection, mechanical methods, and chemical methods are used off the production line, which often results in an inaccurate representation of the process because the dynamics are lost due to the time required to perform the analysis. Consequently, rapid, and non-destructive alternative methods are needed. In this paper, the traditional fat quality assessment techniques are discussed with emphasis on spectroscopic techniques as an alternative. Potential spectroscopic techniques include infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and Raman spectroscopy. Hyperspectral imaging as an emerging advanced spectroscopy-based technology is introduced and discussed for the recent development of assessment for fat quality attributes. All techniques are described in terms of their operating principles and the research advances involving their application for pork fat quality parameters. Future trends for the non-destructive spectroscopic techniques are also discussed.

Keywords: fat colour; fat quality; fatty acid; hyperspectral imaging; iodine value; multivariate analysis; oxidative stability; pork; solid fat content; spectroscopy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical and physical parameters used to desceibe the quality of fat.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of pork sample from the into rind, adipose tissue, and background (a); The background (b) and fat tissue (c) pixels. (d) is the gray image of the pork sample [82].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Chemical maps of TBARS distribution in pork samples by different frozen–thawed cycles [91].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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