Evaluating the Use of a Similarity Index (SI) Combined with near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy as Method in Meat Species Authenticity

A hand-held near infrared (NIR) spectrophotometer combined with a similarity index (SI) method was evaluated to identify meat samples sourced from exotic and traditional meat species. Fresh meat cuts of lamb (Ovis aries), emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), camel (Camelus dromedarius), and beef (Bos taurus) sourced from a commercial abattoir were used and analyzed using a hand-held NIR spectrophotometer. The NIR spectra of the commercial and exotic meat samples were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and a similarity index (SI). The overall accuracy of the LDA models was 87.8%. Generally, the results of this study indicated that SI combined with NIR spectroscopy can distinguish meat samples sourced from different animal species. In future, we can expect that methods such as SI will improve the implementation of NIR spectroscopy in the meat and food industries as this method can be rapid, handy, affordable, and easy to understand for users and customers.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the use of a hand-held near infrared spectrophotometer and a similarity index (SI) method to identify meat samples from different animal species. Lamb, emu, camel, and beef samples obtained from a commercial abattoir were analyzed using the spectrophotometer. The results indicated that the combination of SI and NIR spectroscopy can distinguish meat samples from different species. This method has potential for improvement in the meat and food industries due to its rapidity, portability, affordability, and user-friendly nature.