Abstract
Muxama is a traditional highly-valued food product prepared from dry-cured tuna loins in southern Portugal and Spain. The production procedure has seen little change over the last centuries. The muxama’s stability is due to reduced water activity. In addition, the drying method has secondary effects on characteristics of flavor, color, and the nutritional value of the product. Our objectives were to describe the dynamics of important physicochemical parameters such as moisture content, water activity (aW), NaCl concentration (as water–phase salt, ZNaCl), pH and color, during the salting and drying stages of muxama production, and to test the effect(s) of changes in the traditional processing conditions followed in southern Portugal, aiming at optimizing the production procedure. The lowest values of moisture and aW and highest ZNaCl obtained after drying tuna loins for seven days at 20 °C exceeded the values reported for commercial products and have impact on the appearance (color) of the product. Therefore, drying tuna loins at lower temperatures (ca. 14 °C) is probably more appropriate. The results obtained in this study could be used in the design of future experiments at other conditions and to assess other quality parameters, e.g., total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBA-RS), microorganism abundance and sensory attributes, and subsequent validation trials.
Highlights
Muxama, or mojama, is a traditional, highly valued food product prepared from dry-cured tuna loins that is a delicatessen in the southern Iberian Peninsula: Algarve (Portugal) and Andalucía, Murcia, Alicante and Valencia (Spain)
In Experiment I, the incorporation of salt in tuna loins was accompanied by water loss (Figure 1a–c)
We modeled the changes in physical-chemical parameters of tuna loins along the dry-salting stage using simple or general equations
Summary
Muxama (in Portugal), or mojama (in Spain), is a traditional, highly valued food product prepared from dry-cured tuna loins that is a delicatessen in the southern Iberian Peninsula: Algarve (Portugal) and Andalucía, Murcia, Alicante and Valencia (Spain). Its production process is slightly different among locations. Muxama is one of numerous food products that can be obtained from a tuna at the end of the (traditional) quartering of specimens a.k.a. The tuna (mostly Thunnus obesus and T. albacares) loins are salted and dried according to a predominantly artisanal procedure that incorporates empirical knowledge passed down numerous generations since at least the tenth century [6] or even earlier.
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