Moisture content prediction of porcine meat by bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy

Moisture content is one of the most important elements influencing the quality of porcine meat. However, in recent years, illegally water-injected meat has been discovered repeatedly in the Chinese market. It is well known that high moisture content allows microbes to multiply easily, which can affect people’s health and causes major problems for the meat storage and processing industry. This research developed a rapid, low-cost method for measuring moisture content in porcine meat using bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy. Forty-four pieces of porcine longissimus dorsi   muscle (LDM) were evaluated with a four-terminal electrode portable bioimpedance spectroscopy system. The samples were divided into a training set and a test set. Thirty samples were selected to be the training set to establish the model for the experiment. The results show good correlation (coefficient of determination R2=0.802R2=0.802) between the impedance parameters and the moisture content value determined by standard chemical methods. Based on the model established using a linear prediction equation, we calculated the moisture content for the test set samples. Promising results were obtained for moisture content prediction of the samples, with R2=0.879R2=0.879 for the test set. The method is thus shown to be feasible for moisture content prediction in porcine LDM, and is potentially useful for assessment and discrimination of meat quality.

► We propose a method to investigate pork quality using bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS).
► BIS uses mathematical modeling and equations to predict impedance parameters R0R0 and R∞R∞ of pork.
► A portable device for bioelectrical impedance spectroscopic measurement was used.
► There is good correlation between impedance parameters and moisture content determined by the standard method.
► The method is inexpensive, portable, and requires minimal operator training to identify illegally water-injected meat.