Electric impedance spectrometry for the control of manufacturing process of comminuted meat products

In order to improve the control of the composition of potted minced pork, it is necessary to estimate the water and lipid contents of the product during the manufacturing process. We propose to carry out this assessment using the electric impedance spectrometry. On-site tests show that the PLS model obtained from modulus spectra allows to estimate the water content with a standard deviation of 0.66%, and that the PLS model obtained from phase spectra allows to estimate the lipid content with a standard deviation of 1.08%. The results also suggest that it is feasible to monitor Variations in water content to achieve fast corrective actions in the event of a process drift. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.