Contributions to Estimating the Water-Holding Capacity in Fresh Pork Hams Using NMR Relaxometry

Determining the technological quality of fresh meat pieces is essential in the meat industry to ensure the production of high-quality products. For this purpose, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a non-destructive and non-invasive technique that appears as an alternative to traditional methodologies. The objective of this work is to determine the potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and time-domain (TD-NMR) relaxometry for determining the physicochemical characterization of fresh hams with different industrial destinations (both fresh and cured products, such as dry-cured ham). For this study, the <i>biceps femoris</i>, <i>semimembranosus,</i> and <i>semitendinosus</i> muscles of 20 fresh hind legs from white pigs, classified into four categories according to their fat content, were analyzed. The <i>semitendinosus</i> muscle was selected as a model, and positive and negative correlations were obtained between different physicochemical parameters and the longitudinal (T1) and transverse (T2) relaxation times obtained by MRI and TD-NMR. Regression models using T1 and T2 were also developed to predict the muscle water-holding capacity (WHC) and drip loss, using high, medium, and low magnetic field NMR (R² > 0.80). Therefore, MRI and TD-NMR could be considered as highly suitable and accurate non-destructive techniques for the WHC determination in the meat industry.