Preliminary investigation on the relationship of Raman spectra of sheep meat with shear force and cooking loss

A prototype handheld Raman system was used as a rapid non-invasive optical device to measure raw sheep meat to estimate cooked meat tenderness and cooking loss. Raman measurements were conducted on m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum samples from two sheep flocks from two different origins which had been aged for five days at 3–4 °C before deep freezing and further analysis. The Raman data of 140 samples were correlated with shear force and cooking loss data using PLS regression. Both sample origins could be discriminated and separate correlation models yielded better correlations than the joint correlation model. For shear force, R2 = 0.79 and R2 = 0.86 were obtained for the two sites. Results for cooking loss were comparable: separate models yielded R2 = 0.79 and R2 = 0.83 for the two sites. The results show the potential usefulness of Raman spectra which can be recorded during meat processing for the prediction of quality traits such as tenderness and cooking loss.