The goal of the experiment presented here was to measure, at
macroscopic scale using a specific experimental apparatus, the
fluorescence anisotropy of bovine muscles during their maturation
period, i.e. at different post mortem times. To overcome inter-sample
variability due to muscle structure and highlight only maturation
effects, several samples were selected at each post mortem time and
means from the measurements were calculated
The C1 and τ parameters of the model fitted to the experimental
data appear to be sensitive to meat maturation. They vary in a way
that is coherent with the degradation of structural myofibrillar
proteins and with probable alterations in the tryptophan environment
due to physico-chemical and enzymatic processes occurring during
muscle maturation. These parameters yield two different levels
during ageing leading to the expectation of arranging meat into two
maturation categories.
These results open up theoretical and practical prospects in the
field of fluorescence applied to food analysis, to improve knowledge
and provide insight into structural changes in food and during
transformation processes. They also pave the way for non-destructive
food quality measurements