Meat + Poultry - September 2008 - 121

Fast fat analysis
Rapid methods for analysis of meat on the production ﬂoor are increasingly
popular and a number of methods are now available.
It is well known that fat content is
one of the most important parameters
for control in the meat industry. The
control of fat content is important for
cutting and boning plants, as well as for
the manufacturers of processed meat
products. Several technologies for rapid
fat analysis are available - each with its
advantages and disadvantages.
In-line methods, which scan the
surface of the meat.
A number of available fat analyzers
assess the fat content by scanning the
surface of the meat. These solutions
use near infrared light, but different
methods are used to scan and absorb
the reﬂected light, such as DDA, ﬁlter
based scanning, full scanning etc.
With this type of analysis, the meat
must often be ground so that the
meat pieces are no more than 15-25
mm in diameter to secure satisfactory
accuracy. Further, you can only obtain
satisfactory results with these solutions
on fresh - not frozen - meat.
Analyzers are normally placed after
the ﬁrst grinder (coarse grinder). If the
scan shows a need to adjust the fat
content (= fat standardization), this can
then be done before the ﬁnal grinding
takes place. Often they can also give
information about moisture and protein
content. Many can easily be installed in
existing production lines using a smooth
modiﬁcation of the current set-up.
In-line methods which scan
through a sample of the meat
For manufacturers of ground meat
based products, a couple of analytical
solutions are offered which scan
through part of the meat and can
assess the fat content. The solutions
are based on microwave technology

and x-ray. Both solutions can be
mounted on the course grinder tube and
to some extent are therefore comparable
with the NIR-based in-line solutions.
The x-ray solutions can measure fresh
as well as frozen meat. The microwave
solution measures the moisture content
in the meat and based on that value,
the fat content is automatically
calculated. The available
microwave solutions
can be mounted on
the tube of an existing
grinder. The microwave
solution
has the
disadvantage
that it can
only measure
fresh meat.
It cannot be
used for frozen
products, which to
a large extent are used as
raw material by manufacturers of
processed meat products.
In-line methods which scan 100% of
the meat
X-ray is the only technology which
can ensure 100% scanning of all meat
regardless of the size of the meat
pieces and regardless of whether it is
fresh or frozen.
The MeatMaster™ from FOSS is just
such a solution. It has a capacity of up
to approx. 20 tons pr. hour for raw meat
analysis. It measures fat content and
also scans for foreign objects (metal,
bone). MeatMaster can be used both by
manufacturers of raw meat trimmings
(the cutting & boning plants) and by
manufacturers of processed meat
products using trim as raw material.
The cutting & boning plants can use

MeatMaster to optimize the fat content
in their trim categories as well as
checking the trim for foreign objects.
Manufacturers of processed meat
products can use MeatMaster to scan
the raw material for foreign objects
as well as for the fat standardization
of batches. FOSS offers a software
package that ensures the complete
integration of MeatMaster
into the customer production
process to ensure automatic fat
standardization.
While all other in-line fat

analyzers for fat standardization control
are placed after the coarse grinder, the
MeatMaster can be placed before the
coarse grinder. This offers the advantage
of also using
MeatMaster to inspect raw material
for foreign objects that otherwise (if they
are not rejected) could contaminate
production with the possible risk of
rejection of an entire batch - or in certain
cases (if it is a large piece of metal)
could, for example, damage & destroy
the grinder.
by Poul Erik Simonsen, FOSS

Attend a free web seminar to learn more.
Reserve your space at:
www.foss.dk/meatseminar

800-547-6275 * www.foss.us
84

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February 2007

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Meat + Poultry - September 2008

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