Remiro, VíctorCambero Rodríguez, María IsabelRomero De Ávila Hidalgo, María DoloresCastejón, DavidSegura Plaza, José FranciscoFernández-Valle, María Encarnación2025-07-282025-07-282025Remiro, V.; Cambero, M.I.; Romero-de-Ávila, M.D.; Castejón, D.; Segura, J.; Fernández-Valle, M.E. Contributions to Estimating the Water-Holding Capacity in Fresh Pork Hams Using NMR Relaxometry. Foods 2025, 14, 2329. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/foods1413232910.3390/foods14132329https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/122773Justificación de autores: Conceptualization, V.R., M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á. and M.E.F.-V.; methodology, V.R., M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á. and M.E.F.-V.; software, V.R. and M.E.F.-V.; formal analysis, V.R., M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á. and M.E.F.-V.; investigation, V.R., M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á. and M.E.F.-V.; data curation, V.R., M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á. and M.E.F.-V.; writing—original draft preparation, V.R., M.D.R.-d.-Á., J.S. and D.C.; writing—review and editing, V.R., M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á., J.S., D.C. and M.E.F.-V.; supervision, M.I.C., M.D.R.-d.-Á., J.S., D.C. and M.E.F.-V.; project administration, M.I.C. and M.D.R.-d.-Á.; funding acquisition, M.I.C. and M.D.R.-d.-Á. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Beca predoctoral Comunidad de Madrid: Víctor RemiroDetermining 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.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/journal article2304-8158https://doi.org/10.3390/foods1413232940647081open access663/665Meat qualityWHCPhysicochemical meat propertiesMRITD-NMRT1 and T2 relaxation timesTecnología de los alimentosVeterinaria3309 Tecnología de Los Alimentos3109 Ciencias Veterinarias