The sensory quality of meat, encompassing the traits of appearance, texture, and flavour, is essential to consumer acceptance. Conventional quality assessment techniques, such as instrumental methods and trained sensory panels, often face limitations due to their destructive and time-consuming nature. In recent years, optical sensing techniques have emerged as a fast, non-invasive, and non-destructive technique for the prediction of quality attributes in meat and meat products, achieving prediction accuracies of over 90%. This review critically examines the potential of optical sensing techniques, such as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), Raman spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging (HSI), to inform about the sensory attributes of red meat, aligning with industrial demands for early information on the predicted sensory performance of inventory to support meeting consumer requirements. Recent trends and the remaining challenges associated with these techniques will be described. While technical issues related to spectral data acquisition and data processing are important challenges when considering industrial implementation, overall, optical sensing techniques, in tandem with recent developments in digitalisation and data analytics, provide potential for the online prediction of meat sensory quality in the meat processing industries. Establishing technologies for enhanced information on the product and improved possibilities for quality control will help the industry to meet consumer demands for a consistent quality of product.

Summary: This study uncovered key findings on the antioxidant activity of individual bovine milk samples based on data from 1,060 cows across 53 herds. Antioxidant capacity, measured as ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and expressed in micromolar ascorbic acid equivalents per milliliter of milk, was found to progressively increase over the course of lactation, with increasing parity and during summer. Variations in antioxidant activity were also observed based on the type of feeding regimen. The FRAP increased progressively from dry total mixed ration (TMR), to conventional feeding, and then to standard TMR, possibly reflecting differences in forage intake and botanical composition of the diet. Additionally, the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, expressed as percentage inhibition, decreased over the course of lactation, and increased with parity and the presence of ventilation. These factors appear to affect specific milk components that act as radical scavengers.