Measurement at slaughterhouse of fatty acid composition of the backfat of pig using a portable near-infrared sectrometry

This work aims to develop models to predict the fally acid composition, including n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) from a near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurement directly on the slaughter line. The measurements were performed on the slaughter line on 282 backfat of pigs using a near infrared 5pectrometer (LabSpec 5000, ASD). The fally acid composition of backfat were oblained using gas chromatography. The regression method was partial least squares (PLS). The models developed for CI8:3n-3, n-3 PUFA and total PUFA gave the best results (R'= 0.87, 0.86 and 0.86, respectively) with an associated uncertainty of 1.2, 1.5 and 2.8 points and average values of2.4; 3.2; and 16.2, respectively. For ail other fally acids, R2 < 0.75. The results show that it is possible to use NIRS to determine on the slaughter line the percentage of certain FA such as n-3 PUFA and enable them to be sorted according to quality criteria of fat.