Meat Quality Assessment and Improvement Techniques

Meat quality encompasses a combination of sensory, nutritional and safety attributes that determine consumer acceptance and commercial value. Assessment methods range from traditional sensory panels and physicochemical assays—such as colourimetry, shear force measurement and water-holding capacity—to advanced molecular and instrumental technologies including spectroscopy, proteomics, metabolomics and genomic analyses. Microbiological surveillance and rapid pathogen detection further underpin food safety standards. Improvement strategies integrate genetic selection for desirable muscle traits, dietary and husbandry modifications to optimise fat composition and antioxidative capacity, and post-slaughter processing interventions. These interventions include controlled ageing, enzymatic tenderisation, modified-atmosphere packaging, novel preservation technologies and real-time electronic sensing. Emerging approaches leverage machine learning to correlate multivariate datasets with quality outcomes and precision breeding to enhance flavour, tenderness and nutritional profile. Together, these tools form a multidisciplinary framework to safeguard the global meat supply and respond to evolving consumer expectations.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Innovative preservation has been demonstrated through ultra-rapid surface flash heating, in which a high-power carbon substrate delivers a transient temperature spike above 2 000 K within one second. This process inactivates surface microbes effectively while preserving underlying texture, colour and nutrient content, enabling ambient storage without quality loss. Such targeted thermal treatments promise a paradigm shift in meat sanitation by minimising thermal damage and reducing reliance on chemical preservatives, with potential for integration into continuous processing lines.

Meat Quality Assessment and Improvement Techniques publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in meat quality assessment and improvement techniques across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Organoleptic properties: Sensory characteristics of meat, including taste, odour, colour and texture.

Sarcoplasmic myoglobin: Oxygen-binding muscle pigment responsible for meat colour, existing in reduced or oxidised forms.

Metabolome: Complete set of small-molecule metabolites present within a tissue or organism.

Metagenome: Collective genetic material of a microbial community in a given environment.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS): Analysis linking genetic variants across the genome to phenotypic traits.

Joule heating: Heating generated by electrical resistance when current passes through a conductor.

Modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP): Packaging technique that alters the gas composition surrounding meat to extend shelf life.

Redox potential: Measure of a system’s tendency to acquire electrons and thereby be reduced, critical for meat colour stability.

References

1. Flash heating process for efficient meat preservation. Nature Communications (2024).
2. Discovery of Electrochemical Indicators upon Sarcoplasmic Meat Discoloration. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2024).
3. In-depth characterization of food and environmental microbiomes across different meat processing plants. Microbiome (2024).
4. Metabolome‐Based Genome‐Wide Association Study of Duck Meat Leads to Novel Genetic and Biochemical Insights. Advanced Science (2023).