Rapid prediction of beef colour evolution and myoglobin forms using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)

Meat offers essential nutrients and protein, with some vitamins and minerals rare in plant-based diets. Its colour, an essential quality indicator, influences consumer choices, shelf life, and economic aspects of meat products. Conventional measurements include an objective description of instrumental meat colour (CIELAB) and evaluation of myoglobin profiles, which are usually resource intensive and time consuming. This study aimed to expand the use of spectral techniques as a screening tool for efficient evaluation of colour and myoglobin profile of beef products. NIR spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to evaluate colour related meat quality parameters of beef products over long storage days, including CIELAB colour (L*, a*, b*, ΔE), total myoglobin content (mg/g), and three myoglobin forms (Deoxymyoglobin - DeoMb, Oxymyoglobin - MbO₂, and Metmyoglobin - MetMb). Results have shown that the use of NIR spectroscopy for evaluating colour parameters in beef products shows great promise as a reliable and efficient method. At the validation stage, the RPD values following PLS-R modelling of these quality parameters (L*, a*, b*, ΔE, Total Myoglobin, DeoMb, MbO₂, MetMb) were 7.03, 7.03, 6.84, 1.12, 7.79, 4.18, 7.09, 25.38, and 16.27, respectively. This study demonstrates that the NIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics methods is a promising approach for rapid quantitative analysis of colour and myoglobin parameters in meat products.