a Department of Food Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7051, SE-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden
b Centre for Image Analysis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lägerhyddvägen 17, SE-752 37, Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract:
The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of RN genotype (rn+/rn+ or RN?/rn+) and tumbling condition (tumbled or non-tumbled) on the number of undesirable pore formation in cured–smoked loins using image analysis. Even when not significant, RN?/rn+ loins contained more pores than rn+/rn+ loins. Tumbling clearly decreased the total number of pores, but increased the mean area per pore. Tumbled rn+/rn+ loins contained half the number of pores compared with tumbled RN?/rn+ loins. Even if RN genotype and tumbling influenced the number of pores they did not explain the development of pores in processed meat. The high correlations found when comparing the image analysis results with data from a trained sensory panel and visually scored images indicate that image analysis is a good tool in this type of investigations.