Meat Fat Meter

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YES. All Distell meters are made to be used on live animals and fish. The is because it is NON-INVASIVE and harmless. It also means the measured samples can be used again with no harm.

Distell's Meat Fat Meter can also be used on small live mammals such as Chickens, Rabbit and other similar sized animals.

Yes, it can. The measurement and calibrations for a processed meat is as follows.

Every "processed" meats are different depending on their own individual recipes. Different amount of spices, fillings, added water, binding agents, and other food additives. Therefore, it's not possible to produce a universal calibration for each type of processed meat. What we do is to create a General Product Calibration by taking an average of different meat manufacturers samples and combining the data.

The accuracy achieved using Distell's Meat Fat Meter will vary between company's depending on the type and quantity of food additives combined with the Natural Meats.

Distell's Meat Fat Meter can carry out a specific product calibration for a specific recipe and thus monitor accurately the fat content variances encountered. However, when you consider that any one processor may have up to 300 different recipes, then it becomes impractical to carry out individual recipe calibrations, especially if we were to charge for each recipe required.

The best recommendation is to use a General Product Calibration such as General Sausage. The operator can then log all of the results achieved using the Meat Fat Meter on that particular product mix for about the first 1-2 weeks, then carry out a series of laboratory analysis on the samples. This will allow the creation of a graphed “Table-of-Error”. This is a quick way for company/operator to monitor the specification of the processed meat by allowing for this “error factor”.

It's necessary to compile a reasonable number of data samples, preferably reflecting the extremes normally encountered for the processed meat from the very low fat content to the very high fat content levels. This will ensure a good spread and allow a clear picture of trends.

The Meat Fat Meter can be used to accurately monitor the day-to-day quality and uniformity of the processed meat and allow rapid reaction where product variances are encountered. This procedure can be adopted for most of the companies processed products.

Distell's Meat Fat Meter does not have to contain a dedicated calibration for each and every processed meat. Simply build up a library of ” Error Tables” for each processed meat and apply the error factor accordingly.

Distell's Meat Fat Meter is a quality monitoring tool, giving the operator the ability to check the days’ production against the next day. If the results are the same, then the specification is correct. If there is a variance from one day to the next, then this will be clearly highlighted and allow for investigation.

If however you want Distell to make a truly accurate calibration for your specific processed meat, please let us know and we can provide such calibration with separate fees.

Distell's Meat Fat Meter are accurate to level of +/- 0.5% that have average fat content of 10%.

Yes. Distell's Meat Fat Meter has achieved AQIS (Australian Quality & Inspection Services) accreditation to “Chemical Lean” Standards. It's also been approved for use in US Meat Plants by the FDA.

Several key factors goes into making sure Distell's Meat Fat Meters will provide accurate result:

1. For best and most consistent results and accuracy, product should be measured when within a temperature range of 0-10° C and NOT in the frozen state with NO ice crystals present in the sample.
2. Very course meat grinds (>8 mm) pieces of whole meat or meat that has not been blended can give different results. With such products, it's important to take the recommended number of readings from various parts of the samples to ensure the meter readings taken are fully representative of the sample.
3. Operator Error: Person taking the reading must make sure to the sensors are fully in contact with the meat being measured. To get a reliable and accurate result, the sample meat size should be 250 -300 grams and have a uniform grind. 
4. Operators should ensure that they take the measurements as recommended in measurement charts provided. This will ensure that the measurements taken are fully representative of the ALL of the sample.

If the Meat Fat Meter results are going to be compared to an Laboratory Analysis, always make sure to follow the correct preparation procedures. Otherwise you may get a different result from the laboratory and this will create confusion. The preparation instructions are clearly described in the Meat Fat Meter Handbook but here are some key steps to follow.

- Switch ON the Meat Fat Meter and allow it to warm up to stabilize for 10 minutes.
- Select the correct calibration from the menu. You can confirm that it's the correct calibration by pressing the ‘RESET’ button and display on the LCD.

You're now ready to take measurements:
-  The Meat Fat Meter will request a series of EIGHT readings. Make sure the readings are taken at the recommended measuring spots as described in the handbook.
- Select 300 grams of meat and hand compress it into a “sausage-like” or “patty-like” shape. Make sure you've excluded any air cavities as per chart supplied.
- Place the sensor head fully in contact with the meat sample and make sure there are no air cavities.
- Press and hold the ‘READ’ button until the reading has stabilized, then release the button while the sensor is still firmly in contact with the meat sample.
- Take all eight readings from various spots of the sample (see chart supplied).
- After all eight readings are taken, the Meat Fat Meter will automatically display the Average Fat Content of the meat sample. The result should give accurate Meat Fat Content representing ALL of the 300 gram meat sample.

Having measured the sample with the Meat Fat Meter, you can now send the meat sample to the Laboratory for analysis. Depending on the laboratory, they may only take between 9 – 45 grams of meat. To get an accurate comparison, try to find a lab that accepts 300 grams. In addition, the laboratory must do triplicate analysis, taking a 2nd & 3rd samples from the different areas of the meat sample you have supplied them. This ensures that we have a check on the uniformity of the blended product.

The Meat Fat Meter can be compared with any recognized Lab Method. However, the Meat Fat Meter has been calibrated against Foss-Let Chemical Method, an AOAC recognized Laboratory based Chemical Extraction Method. This method will give the best comparative accuracy. There can be significant variances in Laboratory results depending on the method used and we recommend that the method of comparison is taken into account.

If you've followed carefully the instructions above, the Meat Fat Meter results should compare favorably with laboratory results. We're confident it should be within the performance range quoted in Operators Manual.

The choice between the two Distell Meat Fat Meter sizes depends on the size of the meat you want to measure.

Both Distell's Meat Fat Meters have a minimum meat thickness of 1 inch to measure the meat fat content.

If the meat size is over 0.66 lbs, you should choose the standard model (MFM-1092). If it's less than 0.66 lbs, you should choose the smaller model (MFM-992).

The minimum thickness the Distell's Meat Fat Meter needs is 1 inch to measure the fat content accurately. We also recommend to have at least 0.66 lbs of the meat as well.

No it can not. Distell's Meat Fat Meter needs the meat to be properly defrosted or thawed.

Yes it can. Distell's Meat Fat Meters are used by many clients to measure fat content in ground beef.

Temperature should not have any affect, provided that there is no ice crystals in the meat being measured. If there are some ice crystals, Distell's Meat Fat Meter will tend to over-read the Fat Content level, meaning it will give a higher fat percentage. The reason for this is because the sensors inability to decipher between water content (ice crystals) vs. fat content as the device uses water content as baseline to measure fat content percentage.

In our years of experience, here is what we've found and recommend in terms of temperature:
- Fresh minced meats cooling to 28.4F (–2°C) normally do not contain ice crystals and can be measured as normal.
- Frozen meats will still contain ice crystals even as the sample temperature begins to rise above zero. Therefore it's important to allow recently defrosted samples to temper in an ambient temperature of between 41F - 50F (5-10°C). This will ensure that the ice crystals have fully dissolved.
- Minced meats stored at or above 50F (10°C) can suffer moisture loss over a period of time. This can create a variance from Distell's Meat Fat Meter when compared with Natural Meat Calibration.
- For consistent and accurate results, we recommend the meat being measured is at the same ambient temperature on a daily basis within a temperature range of 32F to 50F (0 – 10°C).

Distell's Meat Fat Meter operates by measuring the amount of water present in the sample and using calibrated algorithms. Then it will calculate the fat content percentage total in the meat sample. The main two variables in any naturally occurring organism (in this case fish or meat) is water and fat, one being the inverse of the other.

We recommend that all measurements for our standard calibrations are taken when the samples are at temperatures between 32F to 50F (0 -10º C) with no ice crystals present.

There will be a difference in the measurement values using Distell's Meat Fat Meter when measuring the same product at 104 (40º C). This means that Distell's Meat Fat Meter measurements using the standard calibrations become less accurate for product at this temperature due to changes in composition and density of the sample.

Meat products changes are due to several factors:
- The product at 104F (40º C) are more dynamic in nature with changes occurring in the sample composition due to moisture evaporation thus changing the relationship between water and fat content.
- At 104F (40 C), the meat will be much "looser" in nature (less dense). Also, at this temperature, the fat /oil in the sample will be more mobile and can be redistributed within the sample.
- The longer the time the meat is at this high temperature, more the moisture within the sample change, thus affecting the composition.

In summary, we recommend to create a custom calibration for product at 104F (40º C). This new calibration will be more accurate and will take account the compositional changes, product density and the fat redistribution within the sample. Providing the product ingredients are the same from batch to batch, the product remains on the same temperature and time profile from batch to batch.