MRI-based analysis of feeding background effect on fresh Iberian ham

• Published in: Food chemistry 2011-06, Vol.126 (3), p.1366-1372
• Main Authors: Pérez-Palacios, Trinidad, Antequera, Teresa, Durán, Mª Luisa, Caro, Andrés, Rodríguez, Pablo G., Palacios, Ramón
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: acorns; automatic detection; Biological and medical sciences; color; Computation; Computer vision techniques; diet; fatty acid composition; feed concentrates; Feeding; Feeding background; finishing; food analysis; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; gamma-tocopherol; grasses; Ham; Iberian ham; image analysis; linolenic acid; Lipid composition; magnetic resonance imaging; Meat and meat product industries; meat composition; MRI; muscle tissues; Muscles; oleic acid; physicochemical properties; Pigs; Surface layer; swine; swine feeding; Texture; Visual
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.11.101

► This work describes the MRI analysis of hams from pigs fattened with different diets. ► It also studies the physical–chemical composition of the Iberian hams. ► MRI-bases analysis can be a useful tool for discerning hams as a function of pig diet. ► Data from MRI analysis and physical–chemical composition are highly correlated. ► Obtained results in this paper are of importance in terms of meat and meat products. This paper describes the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrastive analysis of Iberian hams from pigs that have been fattened only with acorns and grass (AG) and those that have been fattened with high oleic acid concentrates (HO). Based on computer vision techniques, the implemented methods of image processing allowed for the automatic recognition of the Biceps femoris muscle as well as for computational texture feature detection in the muscle. The data collected was then checked against physical–chemical composition. The MRI sequence obtained displayed markedly visual differences in terms of the grey hue for both muscle (darker in AG-fed hams) and inter-muscular and intra-muscular fat (darker in HO hams). Most computational texture characteristics proved to be statistically different between the AG and HO image sets. Two groups (G1 and G2) of texture features were derived. G1 was closely related to linolenic acid (C18:3 n-3) and γ-tocopherol, defining Iberian ham of AG pigs, while G2 was associated with HO pigs. Thus MRI-based analyses enable visual distinction of Iberian hams according to the feeding background. This distinction is also achieved computationally via the examination of the texture features in the muscles.