Visible liquid inside food packages is perceived as unattractive to consumers, and may result in food waste—a significant factor that can compromise sustainability in food value chains. However, an absorber with overdimensioned capacity may cause alterations in texture and a dryer product, which in turn may affect consumers’ satisfaction and repurchase. In this study we compared the effect of a number of liquid absorbent pads in combination with headspace gas composition (60% CO₂/40% N₂ and 75% O₂/25% CO₂) and gas-to-product volume ratio (g/p) on drip loss and quality of fresh chicken breast fillets. A significant increase in drip loss with an increasing number of liquid absorbent pads was documented. The increase was more pronounced in 60% CO₂/40% N₂ compared to 75% O₂/25% CO₂. By comparing packaging variants with a different number of liquid absorbent pads, a higher drip loss for all tested was found at g/p 1.8 compared to g/p 2.9. Total viable counts (TVC) were independent of whether there was free liquid in contact with the product, and TVC was independent of gas composition. Differentiation between the gas compositions was seen for specific bacterial analyses. While significant changes were observed using texture analysis, sensory evaluation of the chicken breast fillets did not show any negative effect in texture related attributes. This study demonstrates the importance of optimized control of meat drip loss, as product-adjusted liquid absorption may affect economy, food quality, and consumer satisfaction, as well as food waste.

Fat marbling, the amount, and distribution of intramuscular fat, is an important quality trait for beef loin (Longissimus lumborum) and is closely connected to sensory properties such as tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. For meat producers, it would be of value to grade and sort whole loins according to marbling on the production line. The main goal of this study was to evaluate high-speed NIR hyperspectral imaging in interaction mode (760–1047 nm) for in-line measurement of sensory assessed marbling in both intact loins and loin slices. The NIR system was calibrated based on 28 whole striploins and 412 slices. Marbling scores were assessed for all slices on a scale from 1 to 9 by a trained sensory panel. The calibrated NIR system was tested for in-line measurements on 30 loins and 60 slices at a commercial meat producer. Satisfactory accuracy for prediction of marbling was obtained by partial least squares regression for both slices and whole loins (R² = 0.81 & 0.82, RMSEP = 0.95 & 0.88, respectively). The concentration of myoglobin in the meat and its state of oxygenation has a strong impact on the NIR spectra and can give deviations in the estimated marbling scores. This must be carefully considered in industrial implementation.

Sweetness in tomatoes is a crucial quality feature, especially for high-cost varieties. Without efficient measurements, producers cannot guarantee sweetness, which may lead to low repurchase rates and increased food waste. In this article we report how total soluble solids (TSS), a measure for total sugar content, can be measured in cherry tomatoes using non-contact near-infrared (NIR) interactance spectroscopy. A prototype system working in the wavelength range 760-1080 nm was tested and compared with a commercial handheld NIR reflection instrument operating in the range of 909-1676 nm. The instruments were calibrated using data collected from 200 tomatoes and tested on 5 independent sets harvested over the next 14 months, a total of 611 single tomatoes and 22 tomato trusses. TSS for single tomatoes was in the range 5.3-14 %. NIR interaction obtained typical standard errors of prediction in the range 0.38-0.52 %, significantly lower (p < 0.05) compared to NIR reflection (0.70-0.98 %). Approximately the same accuracy was obtained by interaction measurements on tomatoes moving on a conveyor belt, both in lab (0.47-0.53 %) and in industry (0.39 %). Whole tomato trusses were measured in movement, and TSS could successfully be measured in each tomato on the truss. Three of the test sets were subjected to sensory analysis performed by a trained panel of 10 assessors, revealing high correlations (0.88-0.99) between sensory sweetness and NIR estimated TSS. The results demonstrate that a carefully designed NIR interaction instrument can be used for rapid and non-contact monitoring and sorting of cherry tomatoes according to sweetness.