Quantification of muscle, subcutaneous fat and intermuscular fat in pig carcasses and cuts by magnetic resonance imaging

The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to predict tissue composition of pig carcasses and cuts. Twenty-four pig carcasses were cut into the four primary cuts that were analyzed with a low field MRI imager before a total dissection. Images were then processed to identify and quantify pixels representing muscle, subcutaneous fat and intermuscular fat fractions. MRI provided a good prediction of muscle content in cuts and carcasses, with R2 ranging from 0.970 to 0.997. The prediction was slightly less accurate for total fat (0.951 ⩽ R2 ⩽ 0.986) or subcutaneous fat (0.918 ⩽ R2 ⩽ 0.994). Finally, the prediction of intermuscular fat content in considering intermuscular fat classified pixels was acceptable only for the belly (R2 = 0.837).