Theoretical Basis and Application for Measuring Pork Loin Drip Loss Using Microwave Spectroscopy.

During cutting and processing of meat, the loss of water is critical in determining both product quality and value. From the point of slaughter until packaging, water is lost due to the hanging, movement, handling, and cutting of the carcass, with every 1% of lost water having the potential to cost a large meat processing plant somewhere in the region of €50,000 per day. Currently the options for monitoring the loss of water from meat, or determining its drip loss, are limited to destructive tests which take 24-72 h to complete.

Genetic variation of an odorant receptor OR7D4 and sensory perception of cooked meat containing androstenone.

Although odour perception impacts food preferences, the effect of genotypic variation of odorant receptors (ORs) on the sensory perception of food is unclear. Human OR7D4 responds to androstenone, and genotypic variation in OR7D4 predicts variation in the perception of androstenone. Since androstenone is naturally present in meat derived from male pigs, we asked whether OR7D4 genotype correlates with either the ability to detect androstenone or the evaluation of cooked pork tainted with varying levels of androstenone within the naturally-occurring range.