How is the instrumental color of meat measured?

As a spin-off of an OECD Workshop on pork quality, held in Helsinki in 1992, a group of scientists with many years of experience in the field of meat quality assessment convened in February 1993 for the first time, and subsequently in 1994 and 1995, in Kulmbach at the German Federal Centre for Meat Research under the auspices of the OECD research project Management of Biological Resources. Three specific areas were discussed in order to develop internationally accepted reference methods: In the autumn of 1997 the methods were brought into their final form at the Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand (MIRINZ). They are presented in this paper.

This review surveyed recent literature focused on factors that affect myoglobin chemistry, meat color, pigment redox stability, and methodology used to evaluate these properties. The appearance of meat and meat products is a complex topic involving animal genetics, ante- and postmortem conditions, fundamental muscle chemistry, and many factors related to meat processing, packaging, distribution, storage, display, and final preparation for consumption. These factors vary globally, but the variables that affect basic pigment chemistry are reasonably consistent between countries. Essential for maximizing meat color life is an understanding of the combined effects of two fundamental muscle traits, oxygen consumption and metmyoglobin reduction. In the antemortem sector of research, meat color is being related to genomic quantitative loci, numerous pre-harvest nutritional regimens, and housing and harvest environment. Our knowledge of postmortem chilling and pH effects, atmospheres used for packaging, antimicrobial interventions, and quality and safety of cooked color are now more clearly defined. The etiology of bone discoloration is now available. New color measurement methodology, especially digital imaging techniques, and improved modifications to existing methodology are now available. Nevertheless, unanswered questions regarding meat color remain. Meat scientists should continue to develop novel ways of improving muscle color and color stability while also focusing on the basic principles of myoglobin chemistry.

To evaluate factors affecting pork color, the gluteus medius (GM), longissimus lumborumetthoracis (LT), semimembranosus (SM), biceps femoris (BF), and triceps brachii (TRI) muscles from pork carcasses of varying ultimate pHs were allowed to bloom for 30 min. L*, a*, and b* values, hue angle, chroma and visual color were determined. Color was evaluated using HunterLab (illuminants A, C, D(65) and F) and Minolta (illuminants C and D(65)) Spectrocolorimeters. LT had the highest L* value (51.31; TR=39.93) and hue angle (59.36; TR=46.94), and the lowest a* (7.52; TR=12.88) value. L* value was unaffected by bloom time; hue angle stabilized after 5 min, a* and b* values after 10 min and chroma after 20 min. Using the Minolta/illuminant D65, visual color best correlated with b* and L* values (r=-0.94 and -0.89) of LT. Using the Hunter/illuminant C, visual color correlated with L* value of LT, GM, BF and SM (r >-0.90 for each). Overall, the instrumental measure that best related to visual color was L* value.