Application of NIS Spectroscopy in Classification of the Iberian pig

Abstract

[EN]In Spain the largest producer of Iberian ham is the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) of “Guijuelo”. The price of these products gives rise to the need for the development of a reliable methodology to allow the authentication of the ham so as to avoid fraud. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is one of the techniques with the potential for this purpose. However, NIR spectral information due to its complexity requires a multivariate data analysis such as artificial neural networks (ANN). In this study spectral information obtained from a NIRS analysis was therefore used to test the authenticity of Iberian ham by means of ANN.