Meat quality: Intramuscular fat content as a price parameter

Prerequisite is the measurability

Well marbled pork chops are associated with positive traits such as tenderness, juiciness and aroma. An intramuscular fat content (IMF) from 2 to 2,5 percent is desired. In reality, usually only an IMF of one percent is achieved. Dr. Daniel Mörlein from the Department of Livestock Sciences in Göttingen attributes this to the strong cultivation of the usual pig breeds in favor of a high meat content.

At the department's founding colloquium in mid-June, he argued that the IMF should be included as a parameter in a quality-oriented payment and marketing system. The prerequisite is, however, the measurability of the fat content with a non-destructive method that works simultaneously fast and cost-effective and delivers sufficiently accurate results, preferably online in the slaughter process.

The scientist from Göttingen is working together with physicists from the Charité Berlin on a method for non-destructive measurement of the IMF in the loin of pork carcasses using ultrasound. The suitability of spectral analysis of ultrasonic echo signals is researched in medicine for diagnostic purposes. One project goal of the Göttingen group is the transfer of the "proof of principle" - i.e. the proof of the principle of action - to a commercial ultrasonic device in the slaughterhouse parallel to the classification.

Previous attempts with a medical ultrasound device were promising, so that a practical method is now being worked on. Then nothing would stand in the way of the implementation of sorting and marketing concepts for meat with special sensory properties. It is also conceivable to further develop the technology in the sense of precision livestock farming to adjust the amount of feed and to determine the optimal marketing time by automated ultrasonic measurements in the barn.

Source: Goettingen [Dr. Ute Zöllner - aid ]