Determination of pH in meat

The pH of 80 beef and 120 pork muscles was determined electrometrically using different electrode systems and different presentations of samples; that is, directly from the muscle, from a meat-water mixture and from a meat homogenate. The results showed statistically significant differences (p < 0·001). Differences between electrodes appear to be greater than the differences due to the different presentations of the meat samples. Certain methods gave systematically lower or higher pH values than others. On the other hand, these differences were not very large and the repeatability of each method was low. On the basis of the results, however, no pH measurement method could be considered better than the others. Further harmonization of the methods used for pH measurement of meat is still needed.