The optimisation of the bone fragment content determination in histological sections

This article describes the optimisation of the histological procedure for the analysis of bone tissue in meat products as evidence of mechanically separated meat (MSM). The results of the analysis of ten products show differences in the interpretation of results between the method of determining the number of bone fragments on ten sections and the method of determining bone fragments on a defined area. The analysis of serial sections with respect to the size of bone fragments also shows that there should be a distance of 0.6 mm between individual sections and that a group of bone fragments within a distance of 0.3 mm from the centre of the given group should be counted as a single bone fragment.