الفهرس 
Introduction and Literature ReviewOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A widespread concern in the world for a safe and nutritious food supply continues to be a major focus. Several techniques are used in meat products inspection to insure its safety for human consumption. Lipid content and lipid quality are major parameters affecting the quality of meat products. The control of lipid content and lipid quality are therefore crucial for human health keeping in a world where there are increased consumption of high lipid content and low lipid quality (related to structural changes in fat molecules as a result of lipid oxidation) meat products. Unhealthy meat products contribute to some serious diseases such as obesity, diabetes and some types of cancer. This work suggests x-ray scattering as a novel technique in meat products control. X-ray scattering from biological samples provides characteristic profiles, which depend on their molecular structure. Adipose tissue show a sharp x-ray scattering peak at a momentum transfer value of 1.1 nm-1 due to the highly ordered fat molecules. On the other hand beef muscle exhibits a broad x-ray scattering peak similar to that of water at 1.6 nm-1. X-ray scattering measurements are carried out on twenty-one freshly prepared mixtures of fat and beef tissues having different fat content in addition to twelve beef product samples (from three different producer companies). The characteristic parameters I1 / I2 and A1/A2 (ratio of intensities and areas of adipose to soft tissue, respectively) are calculated for each measurement. The characterization parameters I1 / I2 and A1/A2 are plotted against fat content of freshly prepared mixtures over the range from 0 g / 100 g to 50 g / 100 g (added fat / pure beef). Both, the x-ray scattering profiles and the fat content of purchased beef products are compared to those of the prepared mixtures with similar fat content.
Results show a high correlation between I1 / I2 and A1/A2 characterization parameters and fat content of freshly prepared mixtures (R2 = 0.9628, 0.9511 respectively). The comparison between the x-ray scattering profiles of purchased meat products and freshly prepared mixtures reflects a high dependence of fat peak position and shape on the deterioration in microstructure of fat. These results are reinforced by the measurements of the FWHM characterization parameter and the RMSD of the x-ray scattering profiles of freshly prepared and products samples. Since, X-ray scattering is rapid, non-invasive, non destructive and does not require any chemical treatment before measurements, it would represent a promising alternative technique to other chemical and physical techniques that are currently in use for fat quality and fat content assessment.