Differentiation between Normal and White Striped Turkey Breasts by Visible/Near Infrared Spectroscopy and Multivariate Data Analysis

The appearance of white striations over breast meat is an emerging and growing problem. The main purpose of this study was to employ the reflectance of visible-near infrared (VIS/NIR) spectroscopy to differentiate between normal and white striped turkey breasts. Accordingly, 34 turkey breast fillets were selected representing a different level of white striping (WS) defects (normal, moderate and severe). The findings of VIS/NIR were analyzed by principal component (PC1) analysis (PCA). It was found that the first PC1 for VIS, NIR and VIS/NIR region explained 98%, 97%, and 96% of the total variation, respectively. PCA showed high performance to differentiate normal meat from abnormal meat (moderate and severe WS). In conclusion, the results of this research showed that VIS/NIR spectroscopy was satisfactory to differentiate normal from severe WS turkey fillets by using several quality traits.