Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for monitoring Parma dry-cured ham processing

P Fantazzini; M Gombia; P Schembri; N Simoncini; R Virgili

doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.01.014

Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for monitoring Parma dry-cured ham processing

Meat Sci. 2009 Jun;82(2):219-27. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.01.014. Epub 2009 Jan 18.

Authors

P Fantazzini¹, M Gombia, P Schembri, N Simoncini, R Virgili

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics, University of Bologna, Viale C. Berti Pichat 6/2, I-40127 Bologna, Italy.

PMID: 20416754
DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.01.014

Abstract

Protocols were developed to apply Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to the dry-curing of Italian Parma ham. NMR relaxation analyses were performed on dry-cured hams at different processing stages to evaluate the ranges of variation of (1)H relaxation times T(1) and T(2) in representative ham muscle tissues, due to dehydration and salt uptake. MRI maps of the same ham sections were acquired, allowing T(1) and T(2) average values to be computed in selected Regions of Interest (ROI) inside muscle Semimembranosus, Semitendinosus and Biceps femoris. Chloride and moisture were determined by conventional chemical methods on the same ROIs, and MRI T(1) and T(1)/T(2) ratio were selected in a model (R(2)=0.90, P<0.05) fitting the salt content of the analysed muscle cores. Short Time Inversion Recovery (STIR) sequences were also applied to green and cured hams, but on fresh samples only, a bright image, displaying a clear separation between lean and fat tissue, was obtained.