Results of a comparative study about the extraction of intramuscular fat from pork

Extraction methods are still used to estimate the content of intramuscular fat (IMF). Analytical results of the extraction are influenced considerably by the type of sample preliminary treatment, by the nature of applied solvents and by the after-treatment of the extracts. Therefore 14 different methods were compared with regard to their ability to extract IMF from musculus longissimus dorsi (13./14. dorsal vertebra) of pigs. The valuation of extraction variants based on the level of imf content as well as on the contents of phosphorus and nitrogen per g imf. Chloroform-methanol-extraction (3:1, v/v) coupled with a single after-treatment of extracts with a sodium sulphate solution (12.5%) was among the proofed methods the fittest with respect to completeness and time of extraction. It is recommended to use freeze-dried and homogenized meat as a reference standard for quality control of extractive IMF analysis.