Warmed-over flavour in porcine meat — a combined spectroscopic, sensory and chemometric study

The effectiveness of applying rapid spectral techniques in the prediction of meat quality in relation to pre-slaughter stress and warmed-over flavour (WOF) was investigated. The effect of pre-slaughter stress on the development of WOF is a relatively new area of interest in WOF research. The present study investigated the relationship between pre-slaughter stress and WOF characteristics (after 0 to 5 daysʹ storage) in porcine meat as evaluated by chemical, sensory and spectroscopic methods. Sensory evaluation, visual reflectance spectroscopy (VIS) and low-field 1H NMR (LF-NMR) proved efficient in describing the different stress groups and the storage period, whereas fluorescence spectroscopy and the TBARS test were only able to follow WOF during storage. Near Infrared Reflectance (NIR) and Raman scatter showed a very weak relationship to pre-slaughter stress and levels of WOF during storage. Good correlations (up to r=0.93) of sensory terms were achieved with VIS and fluorescence spectroscopy and LF-NMR.