On-line prediction of sodium content in vacuum packed dry-cured ham slices by non-invasive near infrared spectroscopy

Meat Sci. 2017 Apr:126:29-35. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2016.12.005. Epub 2016 Dec 13.

Abstract

In the present study, non-invasive near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was evaluated as a potential on-line analytical technique to predict the sodium content in dry-cured ham slices. Samples of 310 packages were scanned by applying a remote fibre-optic probe to the surface of the slices, at different temperatures, with no previous manipulation. The sodium content of the meat samples was determined by a reference method based on Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrophotometry (ICP-AES) after chemical digestion. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used as a chemometrics method to perform the calibrations. The models yielded acceptable results with cross validation correlation coefficients (R2CV) determined 86.2-90.2%. The prediction capacity reached in the external validation was 3.63, with a standard prediction error of 0.12% Na. These results show that NIR measurements could be implemented on the packaging line of dry-cured ham slices to provide accurate and relevant information about the sodium content of each packaged products.

Keywords: Dry-cured ham; NIR spectroscopy; On-line prediction; Sodium content.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Calibration
  • Food Handling*
  • Least-Squares Analysis
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Principal Component Analysis
  • Red Meat / analysis*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sodium / analysis*
  • Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared*
  • Swine
  • Vacuum

Substances

  • Sodium