Rapid and Non-Destructive Detection of Water-Injected Pork Using Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (LF-NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Abstract

AbstractThe challenges of food adulteration such as illegal production of water-injected meat remain serious in many areas of the world. This study investigated the feasibility of using LF-NMR and MRI to identify water-injected pork. Longissimus dorsi muscles were injected with 0 %, 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, 20 % and 25 % content of deionized water, respectively. The CPMG decay curves of water-injected pork decayed slower than that of the normal. The peak area proportion of immobilized water of water-injected pork decreased while relaxation time and peak area proportion of free water increased significantly (p < 0.05). The first two principal components (PCs) of PCA accounted for 54.54 % and 32.06 % of the observed variance, respectively. Based on the two PCs, the water-injected pork could be differentiated from the normal. Furthermore, the accumulation location of the injected-water in pork could be visualized by MRI. Therefore, LF-NMR combined with MRI offers an effective method for the detection of water-injected pork.