Low frequency dielectric measurements to assess post-mortem ageing of pork meat

The use of dielectric properties at low frequencies to estimate the progress of pork meat (Longissimus dorsi) ageing was evaluated. Dielectric measurements were perfomed at 140 Hz, 1 kHz and 300 kHz in perpendicular to the long axis of the meat muscle fibers at 12, 24, 48 and 168 h post-mortem. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to describe the relationships between meat physical/biochemical parameters and dielectric parameters of pork meat. Good correlations were found between the ageing indexes (AIσ and AIɛ′) calculated from dielectric properties and some parameters of texture such as hardness and chewiness. Moreover, both indexes correlated well with free amino acids content, and with K value. The high degree of correlation confirms the viability of using the ageing indexes obtained from dielectric measurements to evaluate the degree of ageing of pork meat, giving information about some important eating quality parameters.