Modeling of Kinetic Changes of Ostrich Meat Color during Deep Fat Frying by Image Processing

Increasing information about color kinetic changes has made the improvement of color parameters possible. Analysis of the color kinetics data allows for undesirable changes to be minimized and optimizes the color retention in food products. Imaging and image processing operation were performed to extract color parameters in the color space L*a*b. Image J software was applied to analysis the images, and changing the color space was done using a two-stage method. The temperature sensitivity of rate constants was evaluated using Arrhenius equation. Results showed that the increase of ΔE during time at the beginning of frying was fast and then has been slower. The activation energy was determined 44.80 kJ/mol. Statistical analyses showed that frying time and frying temperature and also interaction of them had significant effects on total color changes of the meat cubes. Color measurement was carried out successfully using image processing as a non-destructive and simple method in evaluation of ostrich meat crust color and the results of machine vision system correlated with the visual observations. Kinetic of formation or deterioration of color during deep fat frying was well modeled using a first-order kinetic equation.