Rapid assessment of the quality attributes of beef musculus longissimus lumborum during chilled storage using fluorescence spectra excited at 340 nm

The use of fluorescence spectra with 340 nm excitation was investigated for rapid evaluation of the quality attributes of beef musculus longissimus lumborum during chilled storage. The quality indices monitored were the Warner–Bratzler shear force, water-holding capacity (cooking loss and purge loss), pH, and color (L*, a*, and b*). The fluorescence characteristics of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and porphyrin were highly correlated with these indices. A comprehensive and effective indicator was established by principal component analysis to reduce multicollinearity between each beef quality index. Quantitative models for prediction of the quality of beef were built using the partial least squares algorithm. The comprehensive indicator model provided satisfactory results with the Rc2 and Rp2 were 0.912 and 0.903, the RMSEC and RMSEP were 0.488 and 0.581. Therefore, this method could be used for a reliable assessment of beef quality during chilled storage.