Assessing Chicken Meat Freshness through Measurement of Radio-Frequency Dielectric Properties

Abstract. Change in freshness of chicken meat was assessed through measurement of the dielectric properties with a vector network analyzer and an open-ended coaxial-line probe between 200 MHz and 20 GHz at 23 oC. Chicken meat samples were stored in a refrigerator for 8 days at 4 oC. Changes in dielectric constant and loss factor were measured daily over an 8-day period. The dielectric constant decreased with frequency and storage duration with a slope change at about 4 GHz. The dielectric loss factor increased with storage duration for frequencies below 3 GHz and remained almost constant above that. The frequency dependence of the dielectric loss factor was dominated by the ionic conduction in the lower frequency range and dipolar relaxation of water above 3 GHz. Variations of the dielectric loss factor and the loss tangent with storage duration for frequencies at lower frequencies in the range studied show potential for use of dielectric spectroscopy for rapid and nondestructive assessment of the chicken meat freshness.