Water mobility and distribution during dry-fermented sausages “Spanish type” manufacturing and its relationship with physicochemical and textural properties: a low-field NMR study

Changes in the mobility and distribution of water in dry-fermented sausages Spanish type (“chorizo” and “salchichón”, 20 and 40 % fat) throughout ripening were detected by NMR T 2 relaxation. Three to four different water populations ( T 2 b 1 , T 2 b 2 , T 21 and T 22 ) were detected. Multivariate cluster analysis revealed a clear discrimination between samples of different ripening times, and significant differences were found in the physicochemical parameters, T 2 relaxation data and textural properties of sausages according to the production day (0, 2, 4, 7, 11 and 14). Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (PCC) was used to establish the degree of linear dependence between T 2 relaxation–physicochemical characteristics and T 2 relaxation-textural properties. A strong correlation was found between the main component T 21 and the water content ( r = 0.93), T 21 and a w ( r = 0.87), as well as between T 21 and hardness ( r = −0.78), although the other two water populations, mainly T 2 b , showed a lower degree of association with the physicochemical and textural parameters. Consequently, the study demonstrated that LF-NMR relaxometry is a promising technique to elucidate associations between the biophysical state of intrinsic water and progression in textural properties of dry-fermented meat products.