Prediction of lean to fat tissue ratio of pork belly by specific gravity Original Research Article

There is a need for an accurate, economical, nondestructive, and rapid procedure for determining the lean to fat tissue ratio of pork belly or bacon slab. Relationship between specific gravity of various fat/lean ratios in different shapes was investigated using regression analysis. Accuracy of the prediction equation was examined. Specific gravity of sample was neither affected by weight nor by shape. The correlation coefficient between fat percent and specific gravity is 0.98, which is highly significant. Of the variation in fat percent, 96.3% is explained by the variation in specific gravity. Within the range of one standard error, 26 out of 31 verification samples with various weight are included. Data suggested that specific gravity can be used to predict fat percent of pork belly with a fair degree of accuracy. Predicting fat ratio should be helpful to the consumer as well as to industry for quality assurance.