University of Arkansas


NEWS Hyperspectral imaging helps to serve up a better chicken breast


Te University of Arkansas’ Agricultural Experiment Station is using hyperspectral imaging to inspect chicken breasts for a defect known as “woody breast”, which costs the poultry industry millions of dollars annually and decreases customer satisfaction. Woody breast meat is harder


to the touch as it has less water-holding capacity and less protein content, so the meat doesn’t retain marination as well as meat without the defect. It is still a safe product, but can have a crunchier texture that is not appealing to customers Te defect is more common


in larger birds. One theory is that these birds may be producing muscle faster than their blood vessels can support them. Tis possibly leads to muscle fibre damage from collagen deposits. Woody breast affects up to


about 20% of chicken breast meat. Although affected items can be diverted for further processing into products such as chicken nuggets, where the defect is not as noticeable, the loss in premium as a whole- muscle product accounts for a yield loss worth about $200m annually in the United States. Te non-invasive technique


being developed by scientists at the University of Arkansas combines a near-infrared sensor with a high-definition colour camera to capture physical and chemical information. Te new method would


replace the current evaluation procedure for woody breast, which requires time-consuming


sample testing in a laboratory. Hyperspectral imaging would instead take just a few seconds to inspect and grade the meat on the production line. “Woody breast detection by


hand can be labour intensive,” said Casey Owens, the Novus International Professor of Poultry Science at the


Agricultural Experiment Station. “If hyperspectral imaging can be used in a poultry processing plant, that labour force could be diverted to another area.” Te researchers take a


hyperspectral image of each breast – taking up about 1 gigabyte of data – and use a computer to correlate it with


a texture map (created from Owens’ previous research) indicating hardness levels in the fillet. Once calibrated, the system would rely on the images alone to detect woody breast. According to the researchers,


so far the hyperspectral camera has detected woody breast meat with about 84% accuracy.


Graduate assistant Chaitanya Kumar Reddy Pallerla investigates the use of hyperspectral imaging to detect a defect in chicken meat


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