%0 Journal Article
%A Remiro, Víctor
%A Cambero Rodríguez, María Isabel
%A Romero De Ávila Hidalgo, María Dolores
%A Castejón, David
%A Segura Plaza, José Francisco
%A Fernández-Valle, María Encarnación
%T Contributions to Estimating the Water-Holding Capacity in Fresh Pork Hams Using NMR Relaxometry
%D 2025
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/122773
%X 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 ,  and  muscles of 20 fresh hind legs from white pigs, classified into four categories according to their fat content, were analyzed. The  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 (R > 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.
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