Accurately Measuring Fat Content Of Ground Beef

By David Farmer, North America Fat Analysis Specialist

Measuring the chemical lean (CL) or fat content of meat trimmings and ground beef has always been important but, with a number of recent trends calling for highly-accurate and rapidly-obtained CL values, meat processors are under growing pressure to be able to guarantee their CL values. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in many meat processors closely scrutinising the processes they use to analyse the effectiveness of their CL value testing.

This white paper discusses CL and its significance in the meat industry, before exploring several current methods of measuring CL and their applicability for current market pressures. After highlighting a number of inadequacies with these methods, it looks at DEXA technology – a technology that’s becoming the global standard for CL measurement.