1 EVALUATION OF PORK MEAT QUALITY BY USING WATER HOLDING CAPACITY AND VIS-SPECTROSCOPY By

ii The goal of this research was to investigate the use of water holding capacity (WHC) and vis-spectroscopy to classify pork meat quality. This study was carried out in two stages. In the first part, the suitability of using different WHC measuring methods (bag method at 2 and 4 days, centrifuge, cotton-rayon material and filter paper methods) to classify the pork meat samples were studied. The methods were compared to see which method was able to discriminate pork meat samples according to their defined quality classes. The meat samples were grouped into 4 quality classes, namely PFN (pale, firm and non-exudative), PSE (pale, soft and exudative), RFN (red, firm, and non-exudative), and RSE (red, soft, and exudative). The discriminant analysis using stepdisc was used to separate the quality groups. Cotton-rayon material and filter paper methods were better than the other WHC measuring methods to classify FN (Firm, Non-exudative) and SE (Soft, Exudative) groups. In the second stage, the aim was to investigate visible spectroscopy for the classification of different pork meat quality classes. Discriminant procedure was performed for grouping quality classes and stepdisc was used to select the suitable wavelengths. The results showed that it was possible to separate the P (Pale) classes of pork meat samples from the R (Red) classes of pork meat samples with an accuracy o