Abstract: In this study, the texture profile analysis (TPA) process of chilled mutton was analyzed by a data visualization method. It was found that some factors such as slight instrumental vibrations could cause systematic errors such as abnormal peaks and curve fluctuations on the TPA curve and consequently deviations between the characteristic nodes on the TPA curve selected by the detection system and the actual ones, ultimately leading to significant errors in the measurement of TPA indexes. The results also showed that the systematic errors were affected by compression ratios, significant errors appearing at 20% compression ratio, and there were differences in and correlations between the influence on different TPA indexes. The error in the extracted TPA data was effectively reduced by correcting the position of the characteristic nodes on the TPA curve. The average correction level of adhesiveness was more than 20% at all compression ratios tested, and the correlation coefficients between the corrected adhesiveness at 50% compression ratio and total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N), the logarithm of total viable count, and the logarithm of coliform count increased by 11.2%, 20.7% and 8.3%, respectively. Therefore, errors in the measurement of TPA indicators can be effectively reduced by modifying the position of the characteristic nodes on the TPA curve, improving the accuracy and reliability of the measured TPA indicators.

Key words: chilled mutton; texture profile analysis; data visualization; data errors