In order to ascertain whether the NIR spectra collected on warm fat
samples could provide useful information to discriminate subcutaneous
fat samples from beef cows fed diets with or without flaxseed, the
absorbance data matrix (MSC+2D, mathematical treatment that
provided better predictions for most FA) was reduced to a coordinate
axis system, so each sample was defined by the corresponding scores for
each PLS component.When the whole sample set was represented on a
XY plane according to the scores for PLS component 1 and PLS
component 2, two different clusters were observed (Fig. 3) with one
cluster on the left representing subcutaneous fat samples derived from
beef cows fed hay or silage (hay/barley silage) and the other on the right
from cows that were fed these forages along with flaxseed (hay/barley
silage flax). Thus,most of the samples belonging to the hay/barley silage
group showed negative scores in relation to PLS component 1 whereas
those for the samples included in the hay/barley silage flax group were
positive,with sample groupings being related to the degree of similarity
in their spectra.