Visible and near Infrared Spectroscopy of Beef Longissimus Dorsi Muscle as a Means of Dicriminating between Pasture and Corn Silage Feeding Regimes

Near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy was used as a tool to classify beef muscle samples according to their feeding regime. Seventy-eight beef longissimus dorsi muscle samples both intact and minced were scanned in a NIRS 6500 instrument (NIRSystems, MD, USA) in reflectance. A dummy regression technique was developed to differentiate beef muscle samples, which originated from beef feed exclusively on pasture or/and mainly on corn silage feeding regimes. Ninety percent of the pasture-fed beef muscle samples were correctly classified using principal component regression (PCR) and 86% of beef fed on corn silage were correctly classified. Both muscle chemical composition and physical characteristics explained the classification results. The results in the present study showed the potential of muscle optical properties for classification and traceability of meat muscles in the food chain.