Determination of total fat and moisture content in meat using low field NMR

The use of low field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (LF-NMR) is shown to be a fast and accurate alternative to the use of drying and solvent extraction, to determine the content of raw or total fat and moisture in a biological system. The proposed NMR method for fat determination in minced meat proves to be a robust method that does not require sophisticated post handling of the experimental data. The calibration procedure is very easy, as a calibration value from a sample of known weight containing 100% oil is the only calibration needed for the proposed experimental set-up. On three sets, each containing 42 samples of minced beef where the fat content varies from less than 1 to 14%, the fat content has been measured either by NMR on fresh tissue, NMR on dried tissue, or by the use of solvent extraction determining the content of raw fat [Foss-let fat analyser (AOAC Official Method 976.21]. Comparison of the three methods for determination of the fat content shows satisfactory agreement between the different methods. On six samples of minced pork meat, the fat and moisture content have been determined. The total fat content was determined by NMR both on fresh and dried tissue. The moisture content was determined by NMR of fresh tissue and by drying of the tissue. The different methods for determining fat and moisture content agreed for the minced pork samples.