Instrumental texture measurement of meat in a laboratory research and on a production line

Components of meat texture are especially important features for consumers. The systems with guaranteed repeatable quality must be associated with online, reliable and quick measurements of chosen, critical for consumers, quality features. In case of the texture features, the most important is tenderness. In laboratory conditions it is measured using shear test. However, it is a time-consuming and destructive method without possibility of measurement automation. Hence, in case of online measure¬ments, there is a necessity to use other methods. The most promising methods are near-infrared spectroscopy and computer image analysis, enabling measurement of a lot of features, inter alia texture features.