Morphometry of Meat by Scanning Light Microscopy

Authors

H. J. Swatland

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

Morphometric data can be collected from meat by using a scanning stage and a photometer, both controlled by a microcomputer. The passive counting of connective tissue boundaries is g1ven as an example to show that enumerative data may be biassed by the ratio of the width of the subject of measurement to the projected diameter of the photometer aperture. In a second example, the scanning stage is actively directed by the observer and is used to map the radial distribution of succinate dehydrogenase (SOH) activity in different histochemical types of muscle fibers. This is accomplished by the arbitrary fitting by the microcomputer of reference features (plumb line and corners) to the muscle fiber perimeter. Concentric zones of the resulting data matrix are unpacked to calculate radial gradients of SOH activity within muscle fibers.

Recommended Citation

Swatland, H. J. (1983) "Morphometry of Meat by Scanning Light Microscopy," Food Structure: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/foodmicrostructure/vol2/iss2/3