Dry-cured loin characterization by ultrasound physicochemical and sensory parameters

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of ultrasound inspection and quality determinations to characterize two commercial categories of dry-cured pork loin, labelled as green (GL) and red (RL). For this objective, ultrasound inspection was carried out for two different frequencies (500 and 1000 kHz), considering parameters of ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), frequency components related to the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and variables related to the attenuation. Physicochemical (moisture and fat content, water activity, instrumental color), instrumental texture (TPA) and sensory analyses (QDA) were also carried out. Moreover, quality and ultrasonic parameters were subjected to a correlation analysis (Pearson). Several physicochemical, instrumental texture and sensory parameters allowed to discriminate the dry-cured loin category. Moreover, high significant correlations were found among quality and acoustics parameters. Thus, ultrasound inspection can determine quality parameters indirectly without the limitations of traditional methodologies, postulating as a tool for characterizing dry-cured loin samples of different category with a promising predictive nature. This work has showed new findings for dry-cured meat products that may be of interest to the meat industry.

Acoustic Characterization Study of Beef Loins Using Ultrasonic Transducers

“…These results would imply that the ultrasonic signal passes through samples with higher water content more rapidly and that lower frequencies are more significantly attenuated proportionally. These findings confirm the sensitivity of ultrasonic parameters in assessing water content, which has already been observed in other meat products [8,20].…”

“…Sensors 2023, 23, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 13 and meat products-with contact [8][9][10] and non-contact methodologies [11,12]. Thus, ultrasonic inspection determines acoustic parameters that allow the characterization of food samples.…”

“…Using these FFTs, we constructed cumulative frequency periodograms, displaying the 25th and 99th percentiles (FFT25 and FFT99, respectively) of the frequencies present in the received signals. The cumulative frequency periodograms have provided useful information to characterize meat products [8,10]. In concrete terms, FFT25 would correspond to the minimum frequency value for which 25% of the total energy would have been received.…”

“…With new developments in the areas of basic science related to this method, ultrasonic analysis is expected to be widespread and costeffective for large-scale meat quality evaluation in the near future [6,7]. Its effectiveness has been proven by assessing different food matrices and-particularly in meat and meat products-with contact [8][9][10] and non-contact methodologies [11,12]. Thus, ultrasonic inspection determines acoustic parameters that allow the characterization of food samples.…”

“…Thus, ultrasonic inspection determines acoustic parameters that allow the characterization of food samples. Although the literature typically focuses on parameters related to wave velocity and attenuation, recent studies have introduced less common acoustic parameters, including frequency components associated with fast Fourier transform (FFT) [8] and attenuation (without visible echo presence in the corresponding A-scan) measured in terms of energy reception time [13]. The contributions of the acoustic characterization of beef meat are scarce, and moreover, only traditional ultrasonic parameters were considered [14][15][16].…”