Volatile hydrocarbon profile of Iberian dry-cured hams. A possible tool for authentication of hams according to the fattening diet

Analysis of volatile compounds from Iberian hams: a review

“…The profile of volatile compounds from Iberian hams has been used to differentiate different types of pig feedings (Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010b;Timón et al, 2002;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2011), genotypes (Iberian x Duroc) (Ramírez and Cava, 2007) and breed types (French, Iberian and white) (Sánchez-Peña et al, 2005), to study the effect of salt content and processing conditions (Andrés et al, 2007), and to study the length of the process (Dumont and Ada, 1972).…”

“…García-González et al (2008) and Sánchez-Peña et al (2005) analyzed the part located along and behind the femur, composed essentially of subcutaneous fat and bicep femoris, semi-membranosous and semitendinosous muscles. In other studies, the muscles selected were only semi-membranosous and semi-tendinosous (Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010a, 2010b, which were minced before analysis. In addition, the volatile profile of subcutaneous (Timón et al, 2002;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010a;Timón et al, 2001) and intermuscular fat (Timón et al, 2001) from dry-cured Iberian ham has been the object of study (Narváez-Rivas et al, 2011).…”

“…Several authors have carried out the analysis by cutting a portion of ham (muscle, fat or muscle and fat), which was blended and minced (Sabio et al, 1998;Ramírez and Cava, 2007;Carrapiso et al, 2002;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2011;lópez et al, 1992;Timón et al, 1998;García et al, 1991;García-González et al, 2008). Instead of cutting a portion of ham, slices have been taken, minced and mixed (Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010b;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010a;Ruiz et al, 1999) or directly analyzed . on the other hand, a sample of fat has been taken and directly analyzed, without subsequent treatment (Timón et al, 2002;Timón et al, 2001).…”

“…The volatile compounds from Iberian ham have also been isolated by the purge and trap technique and adsorbed in a capillary trap (Sabio et al, 1998;Carrapiso et al, 2002;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010b;Timón et al, 2002;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2011;Dumont and Ada, 1972;lópez et al, 1992;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010a;Timón et al, 2001). In this method, the sample is introduced into a dynamic headspace vial which is thermostated for a time to increase the fugacity of volatile compounds, and subsequently, for a few M. NARváEz-RIvAS, E. GAllARDo AND M. lEóN-CAMACHo minutes the volatile substances are purged with purified helium and adsorbed into a capillary Tenax trap held at a low temperature with liquid nitrogen.…”

“…Therefore, the use of columns with different polarity and dimensions can have an influence on the resolution of some peaks but not in the number of them, which is influenced by the different techniques of isolation used previously and the conditions employed. Nitrogen (Timón et al, 2002;Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010a), hydrogen (Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010b;Sánchez-Peña et al, 2005;García-González et al, 2008, Narváez-Rivas et al, 2010a or helium (Sabio et al, 1998;Ramírez and Cava, 2007;lópez et al, 1992;Timón et al, 1998;Andrade et al, 2009) have been used as carrier gas. As can be observed, helium is the most commonly used carrier gas, but according to the van Deemter equation, hydrogen is better since the chromatographic column has better efficiency when the molecular weight of the carrier gas is lower (van Deemter et al, 1956).…”