Automatic Assessment of Meat Marbling and Tenderness

Introduction Overall quality of meat is determined by a combination of many factors including intramuscular fat, marbling, water absorption and pH. These factors also influence the quality of meat such as tenderness, juiciness and flavor at the time of eating (palatability) (AMSA, 2001). Marbling, which is defined as the intramuscular fat intermingled with lean within a muscle, has great influence on acceptability and palatability of the meat by the consumer. In the meat industry, marbling is evaluated and graded into different levels to meet the various requirements of different markets. Degree of marbling is a primary parameter for determination of meat quality grade. The Canadian/US beef marbling standards differentiate marbling into nine levels namely Trace, Slight, Small, Modest, Moderate, Slightly Abundant, Moderately Abundant, Abundant, and Very Abundant. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) pork marbling standards (NPB, USA 2002) depict seven grades of pork in terms of marbling from 1.0 (devoid) to 6.0 and 10.0 (abundant). In practice, marbling is currently assessed in the meat industry by subjective methods. Visual and subjective measurements of quality are typically difficult to implement reliably as they show poor repeatability of results although the use of experienced assessors can improve results.