Evolution of the bulk optical properties of bovine muscles during wet aging

Robbe Van Beers; Mito Kokawa; Ben Aernouts; Rodrigo Watté; Stefaan De Smet; Wouter Saeys

doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2017.10.010

Evolution of the bulk optical properties of bovine muscles during wet aging

Meat Sci. 2018 Feb:136:50-58. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2017.10.010. Epub 2017 Oct 18.

Authors

Robbe Van Beers¹, Mito Kokawa², Ben Aernouts³, Rodrigo Watté⁴, Stefaan De Smet⁵, Wouter Saeys⁶

Affiliations

¹ KU Leuven, Department of Biosystems, MeBioS, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: robbe.vanbeers@kuleuven.be.
² KU Leuven, Department of Biosystems, MeBioS, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Ten-nodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan.
³ KU Leuven, Department of Biosystems, MeBioS, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Cluster for Bioengineering Technology, Campus Geel, Kleinhoefstraat 4, 2440 Geel, Belgium.
⁴ KU Leuven, Department of Biosystems, MeBioS, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
⁵ Ghent University, Department of Animal Production, Laboratory for Animal Nutrition and Animal Product Quality (LANUPRO), B-9090 Melle, Belgium.
⁶ KU Leuven, Department of Biosystems, MeBioS, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: wouter.saeys@kuleuven.be.

PMID: 29096287
DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2017.10.010

Abstract

The bulk optical properties (BOP) of two bovine muscles were studied in the 500nm to 1850nm wavelength range. Over a two-week period of wet aging, the BOP of the biceps femoris (BF) and longissimus lumborum (LL) were determined and related to moisture content, tenderness and cooking loss. The absorption by myoglobin and reduced scattering coefficient were higher in the BF compared to the LL. The scattering anisotropy factor was relatively high (>0.95 for LL), representing dominant forward scattering. Two-toning effects in the BF could be attributed to significant scattering differences, as no differences in absorption properties were observed. During wet aging, the anisotropy factor decreased, while tenderness increased. It was hypothesized that this might be related to proteolysis of cytoskeletal proteins. The results show the potential use of BOP to monitor tenderization and the cause of color differences in beef muscles. Moreover, this information could be used to develop and optimize optical sensors for non-destructive meat quality monitoring.

Keywords: Absorption; Anisotropy factor; Double integrating spheres; Meat quality; Scattering; Unscattered transmittance.

MeSH terms

Animals
Cattle
Color
Cooking
Food Handling / methods
Male
Muscle, Skeletal / metabolism*
Myoglobin / analysis
Optical Phenomena*
Red Meat / analysis*
Time Factors

Substances

Myoglobin