Beyond standard PSE testing: An exploratory study of bioimpedance as a marker for ham defects

Paweł Suliga; Sisay Mebre Abie; Bjørg Egelandsdal; Ole Alvseike; Amritha Johny; Purushothaman Kathiresan; Daniel Münch

doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2022.108980

Beyond standard PSE testing: An exploratory study of bioimpedance as a marker for ham defects

Meat Sci. 2022 Dec:194:108980. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2022.108980. Epub 2022 Sep 14.

Authors

Paweł Suliga¹, Sisay Mebre Abie², Bjørg Egelandsdal³, Ole Alvseike⁴, Amritha Johny⁵, Purushothaman Kathiresan⁶, Daniel Münch⁷

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway. Electronic address: pawel.suliga@nmbu.no.
² Faculty of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway.
³ Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway.
⁴ Animalia, Norwegian Meat and Poultry Research Centre, 0513 Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Nofima, Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, 1430 Ås, Norway.
⁶ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway.
⁷ Faculty of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway; Animalia, Norwegian Meat and Poultry Research Centre, 0513 Oslo, Norway.

PMID: 36148720
DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2022.108980

Abstract

During post-mortem conversion from muscle to meat, diverse quality anomalies can emerge. Recent pork defects are often accompanied by deteriorating fibre structure. Here we investigate how bioimpedance response, an indicator of structural disintegration, can help in detecting quality defects. We, first, measured the relationship between standard meat quality variables (pH_u, CIELAB, drip loss) and bioimpedance (BI) response. To screen for defect-biomarkers that are linked to aberrant bioimpedance and physicochemical indicators of quality decline, we performed LC-MS/MS proteomic analysis on samples, classified with a multivariate-based separation into good versus poor quality. We found that BI correlated significantly with, e.g., colour and drip loss. Proteomics revealed eleven proteins to be unique for either, good or poor ham quality groups, and maybe linked to structural degradation. In all, our data supports a wider integration of BI testing in pork quality testing to assess structural disintegration, which can render ham unsuitable for, e.g., costly curing.

Keywords: Bioelectrical impedance; Meat quality; Pork; Structural defects.

MeSH terms

Chromatography, Liquid
Meat / analysis
Muscles
Proteomics*
Tandem Mass Spectrometry*