Abstract: As one of the key indexes of meat quality, beef tenderness is the focus of meat science for many years. The detection of beef tenderness is becoming one of the hottest research topics in recent years. In this paper, the technical characteristics of the spectra during the beef tenderness detection were based on the relationship between spectral information and beef internal compositions as well as beef external characteristics. Beef tenderness detection using NIR, Hyper-spectrum, multi-spectrum, visible spectrum and fluorescence spectrum at home and abroad over the past ten years was introduced. Their research progress, limits and potential applications were also discussed.

Key words: beef tenderness, NIR, hyper-spectrum, multi-spectrum, visible spectrum, fluorescence spectroscopy