Detection of premature browning in ground beef using an optical-fibre-based sensor

Abstract

This paper reports on an optical fibre based sensor system to detect the occurrence of premature browning in ground beef. Premature browning (PMB) occurs when, at a temperature below the pasteurisation temperature of 71°C, there are no traces of pink meat left in the patty. PMB is more frequent in poorer quality beef or beef that has been stored under imperfect conditions. The experimental work pertaining to this paper involved cooking fresh meat and meat that has been stored in a freezer for, 1 week, 1 month and 3 months and recording the reflected spectra and temperature at the core of the product, during the cooking process, in order to develop a classifier based on the spectral response and using a Self-Organising Map (SOM) to classify the patties into one of four categories, based on their colour. The combination of both the classifier and temperature data can be used to determine the presence of PMB for a given patty and can thus be used for Quality Control by food producers.