Using blood near infrared spectra from steers to classify fat and meat samples with low or high levels of vaccenic acid

Near infrared spectroscopy on steer blood was tested to discriminate between subcutaneous fat and longissimus thoracis samples with low or high levels of vaccenic acid. One day prior slaughter, blood samples from steers were harvested and near infrared spectra were collected on both whole blood and red blood cells. At slaughter, samples of subcutaneous fat and longissimus thoracis were collected and vaccenic acid content was analyzed by gas chromatography. Partial least squares discriminant analyses based on whole blood and red blood cell near infrared spectra were applied to classify subcutaneous fat and longissimus thoracis samples according to their content of vaccenic acid (low or high). Based on the results from the partial least squares discriminant analyses, subcutaneous fat and longissimus thoracis samples with low or high content of vaccenic acid could be discriminated from the blood near infrared spectra with accuracy from 74 to 95%. Application of near infrared spectroscopy technology on steer blood may have potential as early screening of live animals based on low or high levels of vaccenic acid in subcutaneous fat or longissimus thoracis.