all rights reserved Global demand for meat as a dietary component continues to grow, resulting in concomitant increases in livestock production. 1 In 2005, approximately 254 million tonnes of meat (mainly cattle, sheep, goat, pigs and poultry) were produced globally while 140 million tonnes of fish and aquaculture outputs were produced in 2007, up from a value of 137 million tonnes in 2006. 2,3 Meat and fish, in whatever form they are consumed, are important foodstuffs and generally considered as luxury and nutritious products. 4 Whether for pleasure or health benefits, or both, muscle food consumption (meat and fish) is a cornerstone of the diet of most consumers in the developed world whereas meeting market demand and generating profit is the goal of suppliers: producers, processors, distributors and retailers. even though forecasts of growth in the production and consumption of muscle foods suggest only slight increases (less than 1% by volume 5 ) in the near future, development and implementation of quality assurance measures by the food processing industry are more necessary than ever. 5 Because of the well-described difficulties in making a confident selection of high quality muscle foods at point of purchase, consumers are reported to be willing to pay more for meat claiming to be of premium quality either on the Muscle foods (meat and fish) are very important from the perspective of human nutrition and economic activity, both nationally and internationally. At a research and development level, major efforts continue to be focussed on improving the quantity and quality of raw and processed muscle food types available on the market and also to monitor their compliance with compositional, safety and, increasingly, provenance issues. Publications dealing with the development of near infrared (NIR) applications for the analysis of muscle foods (meat and fish) over the period 2005-2010 have been assembled and reviewed. Well-described advantages of NIR spectroscopy suit the food processing industry in terms of operating speed and possible implementation of in-line, on-line or at-line process monitoring;it also has the ability to meet consumer expectations in terms of product quality and safety assurance. These advantages allow food processors to easily monitor and manipulate processing conditions to avoid the production and release of defective products, thereby guaranteeing product quality and enhancing the possibility of repeat purchasing by customers. For public regulatory organisations which have responsibilities to both food producers and consumers, NIR technology may be able to contribute efficiently to these aims.Interrogation of NIR datasets by increasingly powerful and sophisticated chemometric techniques continues to improve calibration robustness and accuracy while the appearance of extensive suites of algorithms in commercially-available software packages helps in their deployment. The aim of this review is to provide an update on work in these areas which has been published in the period from 2005 t...

c teagasc, ashtown food research centre, dublin 15, IrelandThe perceived benefit of functional foods in the prevention or mitigation of degenerative diseases has stimulated the growth of the functional food market. This perception is based on the presence in these foods of specific molecules which have a positive pharmacological effect when consumed in sufficient quantities (bioactive compounds). The increasing market and consumer desire for quality food products with positive health benefits has created a need for efficient and accurate analytical methods for the quantification of bioactive compounds in raw materials and finished products. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is a fast, non-destructive and accurate method of analysis that has been extensively utilised for the study of foods. NIR spectroscopy has been used to quantify carotenoids, polyphenols, fatty acids and glucosinolates in a wide range of food commodities, for example, wine, dairy products, tea, fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices and cereals. Often, these quantifications are based on data from both the NIR and visible spectral regions; several bioactive compounds are also considered pigments, hence the utility of the visible spectral region. Major classes of other bioactive compounds, including pre-and probiotics, have yet to be analysed using NIR spectroscopy. The use of NIR spectroscopy for analysis of bioactive compounds is expected to match the growth of the functional food and bioactive ingredients markets.

J. Inst. Brew. 116(1), 56-61, 2010Brand protection is important for a food processor; trust in brand identity is essential for consumer confidence. In this study, the combination of UV spectroscopy and multivariate mathematics was investigated to confirm the identity of a processed cereal product-a Trappist beer. Samples (52) of Rochefort 8, other Rochefort and non-Rochefort beers, diluted 1:100 with distilled water, were analysed by UV spectroscopy (220-400 nm). Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) multivariate methods were applied separately to confirm the identity of Rochefort 8 beer. Spectral data were analysed in both raw and standard normal variate (SNV) pre-treated forms. Using PLS-DA, a twostage modelling procedure was applied involving initial classification as either Rochefort or non-Rochefort followed by classification within the Rochefort class as Rochefort 8 or non-Rochefort 8. Correct classification rates for these two steps were (a) 100 and 94.4% and (b) 90.9 and 100% respectively. Applying the 3 principal component SIMCA model to the 8 test Rochefort and all of the non-Rochefort (n = 36) samples, 6 of the 8 Rochefort beers were correctly classified (75%; p = 0.05) but only two of the 36 non-Rochefort beers were wrongly classified as Rochefort (correct classification rate of 94.4%).