Image analysis application for automatic quantification of intramuscular connective tissue in meat

Relationships between structural characteristics of bovine intramuscular connective tissue assessed by image analysis and collagen and proteoglycan content

“…In pork, Del Moral et al (2007) showed a LT perimysium area of 22.6 and 9.9% (% of the total image area) respectively for Large White crossbreed and Iberian pigs and LT perimysium area ranged from 3% for Bos Taurus Rubia Gallega to 5.8% for Kobe beef. The same authors (Del Moral et al, 2007) also showed for sheep a perimysium area of 13. 8 and 20.7% (% of the total image area) respectively for Triceps brachii and LT. Sifre-Maunier et al (2006) showed, for 5-year-old Charolais cull cows, a perimysium area ranging from 3.1 to 14% in LT muscle, for a threshold confidence level of 0.80 and 0.55 (the former allowing the thicker perimysium detection and the latter allowing overall perimysium detection), respectively.…”

“…More recently, image analysis associated with histological methods have been developed. Except Sifre-Maunier, Taylor, Berge, Culioli, and Bonny (2006) and Del Moral, O'Valle, Masseroli, and Del Moral (2007), authors have rarely described their method accurately. Image analysis has been used to study the structural characteristics of perimysium thickness Brooks & Savell, 2004;Das et al, 2010;Fang, Nishimura, & Takahashi, 1999;Lachowicz, Zochowska, & Sobczak, 2004;Nishimura, Fang, Wakamatsu, & Takahashi, 2009;Sifre-Maunier et al, 2006;Torrescano et al, 2001) or muscle fibre bundles, but few authors have been interested in endomysium Lachowicz et al, 2004;Torrescano et al, 2001).…”

Study of beef blade muscles’ differentiation depending on conformation and fat class

“…An excessive proportion of connective tissue has negative impacts on beef quality, because it has been shown that connective tissue could be the crucial factor determining meat tenderness (21). Using ANOVA, we proved that there was no cumulative effect of muscle type and fat class ( Table 1) on amount of connective tissue (P = 0.4027).…”

Qualitative evaluation of tortellini meat filling by histology and image analysis

“…Image analysis is not applicable to define the precise meat content in the tortellini filling due to retraction of muscle fibres and loss of water (Del Moral et al , 2007). However, it was possible to obtain objective information on parameters related to the uniformity and density of the main ingredients in the batches of finished meat filling.…”

“…Digital image analysis is an easy‐to‐use and flexible software tool that allows precise measurements as well as automatic object detection by shape, size, colour and other criteria. Image analysis has been used in the food industry for the evaluation of the morphologic features of a food product for the on‐line quality control of industrial meat products to determine crude fat content, intramuscular connective tissue and fibre retraction in meat (Vote et al , 2003; Tan, 2004; Del Moral et al , 2007).…”