Identification of Beef Fat through Image Processing and Biospeckle

Meat processing, especially beef, in slaugherhouses have been an evolving process, visible mainly through the mechanization of the beef cuts. The identification of the fat percentage present in a piece of beef is commercially important, determining the price of the end product. Optical techniques can identify fat in beef automatically. A technique which has been widely used in the analysis of fruit and seeds, with adaptations, named Biospeckle allowed to evaluate levels of biological activities occurring in different beef tissues. In this paper, the Moment of Inertia (MI) was calculated and Activity Maps were obtained through the LASCA method. A third method, Image Processing, was also used. With all those data, it was possible to obtain an algorithm capable of differentiating beef adipose tissue from connective and muscle tissues.