Chemical Lean (CL) is defined as the amount of lean red meat compared to the amount of fat in a meat sample. Its determination by an approved method is a mandatory AUS-MEAT requirement for any export meat product. Presently, there are fifteen approved methods ranging from classical wet chemical to specific instrumental based techniques. To date, no comprehensive study has been undertaken in Australia which compares contemporary methods used for CL determination.

The project objectives were to engage with the Australian meat processing industry to identify currently used methods for CL determination, perform a method comparison, and develop a proposal for national standard for CL determination.