Chemical-instrumental-sensory parameters and chemometrics as tools to discriminate among the quality categories of dry-cured Iberian shoulder

Abstract

A combination of physico-chemical and sensory measurements along with chemometric tools was used to authenticate the quality category of dry-cured Iberian shoulder. Depending on the confinement regime and feeding background, dry-cured Iberian shoulders from three classes were analyzed: i) pigs reared in confinement regime and fed with commercial feeds (CON class), ii) pigs reared in extensive regime and fed with commercial feeds (EXT class) and iii) pigs reared in extensive regime and fed with natural sources (grass and acorns), called Montanera regime (MON class). The principal component analysis (PCA) results discriminated among the three types of dry-cured shoulders according to their quality. The soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA), which is a classification model, enabled the characterization of the quality class of unknown dry-cured shoulder samples. Finally the Cooman´s plot and Si vs. Hi plot provide a classification for the unknown quality of dry-cured shoulders.