Optics: measuring and testing – Of light reflection
Patent
1995-03-01
1997-09-16
Rosenberger, Richard A.
Optics: measuring and testing
Of light reflection
348 89, 452157, A22B 500
Patent
active
056686340
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the control and assurance of the quality of meat (which may be in the form of carcasses or cuts of meat), and a grading system for the same.
Most meat processors wish to pay the producer of a meat animal according to the value they gain from each carcass, most obviously with regard to the amount of lean tissue derived therefrom. Despite the self-evident desirability of such an arrangement it is in fact surprisingly difficult to achieve practically with any degree of accuracy or satisfactory reproducibility.
BACKGROUND ART
A plethora of carcass grading systems and techniques have been developed which attempt to relate carcass characteristics to yield; most are performed manually and are therefore inherently subject to variations. With the intention of eliminating operator variability, I have previously devised an automatic inspection system using video cameras and image analysis; the system is disclosed in GB2247524 which is incorporated herein by reference. The system provides information on specific sex, distribution and other attributes through examination of the total carcass so as to determine an overall grade: weighting factors, such as carcass weight and size, may be applied if thought desirable. Normalised measurements are used to predict meat yield by reference to data from prior measurement of reference carcasses; as the database on which prediction of meat yield expands, the precision and accuracy of prediction steadily improves. Examination of the carcass can provide at best only a crude estimate of the quality of the meat itself.
One of the main causes of variability in the quality of meat and meat products is the variability of the meat cuts from which the meat is derived or which provide the raw material for the process concerned. Many of the causes of this variability have been identified, at least in broad sweep, but in practical terms the control of the causes that lead to such variability is extremely difficult. This is particularly the case from the point of view of the producer of meat animals, who is frequently faced with a highly variable and poorly defined genotypic pool, on which has to be superimposed a wide variety of environmental factors which contribute to the rate that the animal grows and the deposition of the relative proportions of the various tissues that make up the animal at slaughter. Further, the complex interplay between genotype and environment is only partly understood and inadequately defined. Consequently, both the fresh meat handler and the manufacturer of meat products are likely to be faced with the problem of unpredictably variable raw material for the foreseeable future.
In some respects, the great diversity of meat products that are available in the market today has originated in response to the variability in raw material characteristics, with particular types of cut tending to be used for product manufacture (because their appearance is not aesthetically attractive visually, for example, or their high content of connective tissue makes them unacceptably tough, etc) and the need to maximise return from individual cuts that are not of sufficient quality to be sold without processing. Despite the long history of meat processing, it is still common practice for manufacturers of meat products to select meat cuts according to criteria largely based on experience on one hand, and customers' requirements on the other. Where, as in many cases, this selection is largely manual and frequently subjective, it is typically somewhat slow, requires skill and experience on the part of the selector, and in practice is found to provide an unacceptably high incidence of unsatisfactory product. Where the selection is made on more objective criteria, such as weight, it may be less error prone; however, variability in the finished product is still too high, probably because the relationship between the objective value measured and the quality criterion in the end product is poor. These problems are further complicated and exaggerated
REFERENCES:
patent: 3154625 (1964-10-01), Kail
patent: 4226540 (1980-10-01), Barten et al.
patent: 4413279 (1983-11-01), Gorl
patent: 4939574 (1990-07-01), Petersen et al.
patent: 5194036 (1993-03-01), Chevailer et al.
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