Method and system for verifying the age of an animal providing meat
The invention provides a method for verifying the age of an animal providing meat using volatile profiles that comprises the step of providing a sample of animal meat. The method uses one or more chemical analyses to obtain a profile of a set of volatile organic compounds from a sample of meat from an animal. The profile is fit to a mathematically discriminating function resulting. The data obtained is analyzed in order to establish a correlation between the age of the animal (tooth development) and volatiles exuded by meat.
1. A method for verifying the age of animal meats using volatile compounds profiles comprising the steps of:
obtaining a sample of meat of an animal;
obtaining a homogenized sample of meat by finely cutting said sample of meat and eliminating all visible traces of fat;
placing said homogenized sample meat in in a lower part of a vial having an hermetic septa and a head space;
heating said vial to a temperature between 0 and 100° C. for between 1 and 500 minutes;
introducing a solid-phase micro-extraction fiber into said septa of said vial;
maintaining said solid-phase micro-extraction fiber in said vial's head space for at least 5 minutes;
obtaining gases by desorbing in the point of injection of a gas chromatograph;
separating said gases obtained in a chromatographic column using helium at a constant flow;
obtaining a chromatogram having a plurality of chromatographic peaks representing volatile organic compounds;
identifying said volatile organic compounds in said chromatogram;
selecting a subset of said volatile organic compounds identified in said chromatogram, wherein the areas of said chromatogram corresponding to said subset are adjusted to a mathematically discriminating function; and
obtaining an objective limit of tooth development of said animal using an output of said mathematically discriminating function;
wherein the discriminant mathematical function comprises:
Y= 6.074−0.077 X 1 −0.046 X 2 −0.072 X 3 −0.068 X 4 −0.068 X 5 −0.043 X 6 −0.071 X 7
where:
Y Discriminant variable
X 1 Hexanoic acid
X 2 Octanol
X 3 Nonanal
X 4 Benzoic acid
X 5 Octanoic acid
X 6 Tridecanol
X 7 Tetradecanol.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of heating said vial further comprising heating said vial to a temperature of 50° C. for 30 minutes.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of maintaining said solid-phase micro-extraction fiber in said vial's head space further comprising maintaining said solid-phase micro-extraction fiber in said vial's head space for 30 minutes.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein if “Y” is greater than zero, then the tooth development is less than or equal to a pre-established limit of the animal's permanent teeth.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein if “Y” is less than zero, then the tooth development is greater than the pre-established limit of the animal's permanent teeth.