Fat smearing, or poor fat particle definition, impacts the visual quality of sausage. However, objective methods of assessing fat smearing have not been identified. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine the relationship between fat smearing and instrumental color analysis for fresh sausages to create a standard method for using instrumental color in fat smearing analysis. Meat blocks of pork (PK), beef (BF), and a mixture of pork and beef (P/B) were formed and processed at three different temperatures to create varying degrees of fat smearing. The average fat smearing score of each sausage was used to determine if a relationship existed with instrumental color measurements (CIE L*, a*, b*, and reflectance percentage at 580 nm and 630 nm) and color calculations. A correlation was observed for L* (R = -0.704) and the reflectance at 580 nm (R = -0.775) to PK fat smearing (p < 0.05). In P/B sausage, both reflectances at ratios between 630 nm and 580 nm were correlated to P/B fat smearing. No measurement or calculation was correlated with BF fat smearing (p > 0.05). Therefore, it is possible to use instrumental color analysis for the evaluation of fat smearing in pork and pork/beef blended sausage products, but not in beef sausage products.
Keywords: fat smearing; fresh sausage; instrumental color; processed meat quality.