ABSTRACTIndividual optical fibers in a coherent light guide were used to measure the color of small inclusions such as meat fragments, pepper corns and herb leaves in processed meat products. With an optically homogeneous product (liver pate), the absorbance spectrum with coherent fiber optics was similar to that obtained with a noncoherent system. With an optically anisotropic myosystem (ham), differences were found between 600 and 700 nm. In variegated meat products (meat loaf and bologna), variance in the integrated spectrum was related to divergence between the focal spectra of the meat inclusions and the surrounding matrix, but meat‐fragment size also had an effect on varianc