Drying behavior and quality parameters of dried beef (biltong) subjected to different pre-treatments and maturation stages

ABSTRACT

The drying behavior of fresh, matured, and frozen beef, marinated with 0.5% salt, 1% salt, salt and vinegar, and blind samples, dried at 70°C, was investigated. Weight and color (CIELAB) were measured and images of the samples were created with a hyperspectral imaging camera. Results show that the marinade and the type of beef influences the drying behavior of beef, but not the final color. Results from the hyperspectral imaging show that it is possible to build good fitting prediction models resulting in high R² (min. 0.81, max. 0.98) and low RMSE (min. 0.08, max. 2.35) for moisture content, a^* and b^* values.

KEYWORDS:

• Beef drying
• hyperspectral imaging
• maturation stage
• pretreatment
• VNIR

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Core Organic Plus Programme for the financial support within the SusOrganic project (Project No.: BLE—2814OE006), the Reload Project (Project No.: BMBF—031A247A) and the University of Kassel for their financial support in the framework of the Nachwuchsgruppen Program.