Use of NMR Relaxometry to identify frankfurters of different meat sources

ABSTRACT

Frankfurters are categorised as ready to eat meat products and are prepared by using different meat sources including beef, chicken, turkey or pork or mixtures of them. Due to cost and feasibility, it is very common to adulterate beef-, chicken- and turkey-based frankfurters with pork meat. Since pork is not consumed by some part of the population due to religion, it is important to identify pork frankfurters based on easy quality control methods. In this study, NMR Relaxometry was used to differentiate four different frankfurter types based on their relaxation times. Relaxation measurements were conducted on three permanent field benchtop NMR spectrometers (13.52/20.34/22.35?MHz) and also using an FFC Relaxometer at a frequency range of 40?kHz–8.86?MHz. Physical properties of frankfurters such as moisture and solid fat contents, water activity (a_w) and hardness values were also measured. Results showed that among the permanent field systems, 22.34?MHz was the best to differentiate frankfurters based on both T₁ and T₂ relaxation times. FFC experiments also showed that the dependence of T₁ with respect to frequency follows a well fitted power law behaviour throughout the whole frequency range (R²?>?0.97) and the highest difference on T₁ was observed at the lowest frequency of 40?kHz. Thus the results of the study showed that NMR Relaxometry has the potential to discriminate frankfurters of different meat origin. Further studies are needed to detect the authenticity of the type of mixture in frankfurters.