Validation trials for the prediction of water holding capacity of pork meat by vision and VisNIR spectroscopy

There is some focusing interest in the French pork meat sector to test new parameters for carcass grading in slaughterhouses, and water holding capacity evaluation could be the next parameter to be added to carcass weight and lean meat percentage. Many feasibility studies have been conducted at IFIP in the last ten years for the prediction of water holding capacity with vision systems, near infrared spectroscopy and more recently hyperspectral imaging systems. A large validation project is now needed to compare technologies, from accuracy, integration and traceability concerns. The aim of the DATAPORC project is to build robust prediction models involving 7 devices designed for industrial purpose and to validate them on a large population (carcasses, bone-in hams, or deboned hams, depending on the device design). Experiments were conducted in 4 slaughterhouses on a three-year period, with a total of 5562 carcasses. The project also deals with traceability concerns, in order to give consistent feedback to pig producers. This paper presents the results obtained in the first slaughterhouse on deboned hams with two technologies: Visible and Near InfraRed (VisNIR) spectroscopy with contact probe and color evaluation with vision system.