METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING CONTENT OF COMPONENT OF BEEF

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To highly accurately measure contents of components of a thoracic longissimus muscle of a cut face of a beef carcass or partial meat with the use of an infrared analysis method in a nondestructive manner. SOLUTION: A near infrared monochromic light from a near infrared spectrometer 1 is guided by an optical fiber 23 to a probe 4 with a black light- shielding plate 41 to illuminate a beef sample 10 pressed to the light-shielding plate. A penetrating/reflecting light from the sample is guided by an optical fiber 24 to be detected by a photodetector 28. A diffraction grating 22 is driven to scan the light. A content of a specific component in the sample is operated by a double regression expression using secondary differential values of absorbances at three specific wavelengths. In order to measure a content Y(%) of fat of a thoracic longissimus muscle of a cut face of a beef carcass, secondary differential values X1 , X2 , X3 of absorbances at wavelengths 928nm, 886nm, 730nm are used, and the content Y is obtained according to Y=16.18-274.1X1 +1063.8X2 -174.6X3 .