Use of visible spectroscopy to assess colour development during ageing of fresh pork from different quality classes

The objective of this research was to study the entire visible spectra evolution during meat ageing in different pork meat quality classes (PSE, DFD and RFN). The potential use of the visible spectra for discriminating low meat quality classes during the 24 hours postmortem (hpm) was also analysed. For these purposes, 26 pork loins were used: 3 PSE (pale, soft and exudative), 3 DFD (dark, firm and dry) and 20 RFN (red, firm and non‐exudative). At 12, 24, 48 h and 7 days postmortem, reflectance spectra (400–700 nm) were obtained by a spectrocolorimeter Minolta CM‐3600D after one and a half hour of blooming time. It was demonstrated that the ageing time has an influence in colour parameters and in blooming ability of RFN loins. The evolution of visible spectra was influenced by ageing time in PSE and RFN loins, while the visible spectra of DFD loins showed no variation with postmortem time. The results showed the possibility of separating PSE meats from the other classes by using visible reflectance spectra at 24 hpm.