Abstract
Dry-cured Iberian ham is officially classified into different commercial categories according to the pig’s breed and feeding regime. These reach very different prices, thus promoting labelling fraud and causing great damage to the food sector. In this work, a method based on Raman spectroscopy was explored as a rapid in situ screening tool for Iberian ham samples. A total of 110 samples were analyzed to assess the potential of this technique to differentiate purebred, crossbred, acorn-fed and feed-fed dry-cured Iberian ham. A continuous signal probably due to sample fluorescence was obtained, which hid the Raman scattering signal. Therefore, chemometric treatment was applied in order to extract non-apparent information. High validated classification rates were obtained for feeding regime (83.3%) and breed (86.7%). In addition, an interlaboratory study was carried out to confirm the applicability of the method with 52 samples, obtaining a validated rate above 80%.
Highlights
Acorn-fed or bellota dry-cured Iberian ham is a product derived from Iberian pigs fattened up by grazing acorns and pasture in a free-range or montanera regime
The sector accepted that the Iberian pig feeding regime could be verified by analyzing the subcutaneous fat fatty acids using gas chromatography (GC) coupled with a flame ionization detector (FID) [2]
While the feed-fed samples analyzed with device A came from Iberian pigs strictly fed with fodder in an intensive raengiimntee,ntshiveefereedgi-mfeed, sthame fpeleeds-faendalsyazmepdlewsiathnadlyevzeicdewBitchamdeevfircoemB pcaigmsefefrdomin paingsexfetednisnivaen reexgtiemnesiwveitrhegaibmreoawdiethr ma ibxrooafdfoedr dmeirxaonfdfopdadsteurraen(dwphaicshtuarree(owfhfiiccihalalyredoefsfiigcinaalltyeddeassi“gCnaetbeod daes c“aCmebpoo”d)e
Summary
Acorn-fed or bellota dry-cured Iberian ham is a product derived from Iberian pigs fattened up by grazing acorns and pasture in a free-range or montanera regime. Its high commercial value has led to an increase in labelling fraud, both in terms of the pig feeding regime and racial purity To overcome this problem, recently, the Spanish “Iberian Pork Quality Regulation” [1] was published. The sector accepted that the Iberian pig feeding regime could be verified by analyzing the subcutaneous fat fatty acids using gas chromatography (GC) coupled with a flame ionization detector (FID) [2]. This method condensed the value of the montanera regime to a mere fatty acid profile. This background has led to the search for new analytical methods to discriminate between Iberian hams with differing qualities
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