Assessment of physico-chemical traits related to eating quality of young dairy bull beef at different ageing times using Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics.

Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics were investigated for the prediction of eating quality related physico-chemical traits of Holstein-Friesian bull beef. Raman spectra were collected on the 3rd, 7th and 14th days post-mortem. A frequency range of 1300-2800cm was used for partial least squares (PLS) modelling. PLS regression (PLSR) models for the prediction of WBSF and cook loss achieved an RCV of 0.75 with RMSECV of 6.82 N and an RCV of 0.77 with RMSECV of 0.97%w/w respectively. For the prediction of intramuscular fat, moisture and crude protein content, RCV values were 0.85, 0.91 and 0.70 with RMSECV of 0.52%w/w, 0.39%w/w and 0.38%w/w respectively. An RCV of 0.79 was achieved for the prediction of both total collagen and hydroxyproline content, while for collagen solubility the RCV was 0.88. All samples (100%) from 15- and 19-month old bulls were correctly classified using PLS discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), while 86.7% of samples from different muscles (longissimus thoracis, semitendinosus and gluteus medius) were correctly classified. In general, PLSR models using Raman spectra on the 3rd day post-mortem had better prediction performance than those on the 7th and 14th days. Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics have potential to assess several beef physical and chemical quality traits.