Two simple, accurate, rapid and economical methods for determining variations in drip loss of lean, prepackaged, post-rigor porcine musculature during storage have been developed. Laboratory grade filter paper having a 45 mm diameter was placed on the cut surface of the muscle (after 10-15 minutes' exposure) and scored for wetness (0 to 5) within 3 s or weighed for fluid accumulation. The tests on 40 randomly selected longissimus muscles that appeared to represent 'normal' quality characteristics proved to be nearly perfectly and positively correlated to % 48 h drip loss. Statistically, the relationship was non-curvilinear and, when regression equations were used to predict drip losses on a separate group of 27 muscles having considerable variation in quality, the correlations between the predicted and actual values were nearly perfect (r = 0·97 for score and 0·95 for weight). These two methods have not been compared to other, more sophisticated, ones currently used, but the results of this investigation suggest that the two methods may be useful to the meat industry, especially for practical applications.
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