Development of a non-destructive testing of meat using planar electromagnetic sensor to differentiate classes of meat

Abstract

Adulterations in labeling of meats can be considered as a major issue for consumers. It may not only lead to economic, ethical, and health problems but also raises concerns on religious belief and may cause allergic reactors. This study is designed to quantitatively differentiate classes of meat, which are red and white meats using a Non-destructive testing (NDT) technique. NDT is a technique used in science and industry in order to measure some characteristics of an object without causing any damage on it. A total of 300 grams of meat from each source of raw beef, pork, chicken and duck samples have been collected from three different cuts; fat, flesh and bone. Parameters such as sensing voltage, exciting voltage, S-parameters and resonance frequency were obtained from both planar interdigital and meander sensors. Measured impedance was extracted and classified in red and white meats using separation and adulteration methods. The performance of the system was reliant on the accuracy obtained from the sensors based on the above-mentioned parameters. When using the interdigital sensor, it has been found out that the average impedance of the red meat (beef & pork) is always higher as high as 12.97MΩ than the average impedance of the white meat (chicken & duck) of an average 8.68MΩ in the separation method. Both the interdigital and meander sensors show the same trend of impedance value using the separation method. This can be due to the fact that the red meat contains more density of muscles compared to the white meat. In the adulteration method, mixture samples were prepared in three different ratios, which are 0.5:0.5, 0.75:0.25, and 0.25:0.75 percent from the total weight sample of each meat source. In this method, the meander sensor was used due to its accuracy and simple setup. However, there is a slight difference in the results obtained where the measured value constantly shows higher impedance in the existence of pork in all sample combinations excepts for the fat cuts in sample B3 that shows 50.14Ω as compared to sample A3 recorded 29.22Ω. It is due to the percentage of duck fat, which is 50% higher than the chicken in the mixture, and the measured impedance of the duck’s fat itself is higher than pork when measured separately. Besides that, the nature of the duck itself contains up to 76.41% of water holding capacity as compared to pork, which is only 75.1%. The results have shown that the planar interdigital and meander sensors can be used to differentiate classes of meat as an alternative mechanism in meat identification.