Determination of added water in pork products using microwave dielectric spectroscopy

The effects of added water on the microwave dielectric spectra of pork products has been studied. Results are presented for canned pork, bacon, ham, leg meat and commercial samples of ham and bacon bought from UK retailers. The dielectric spectra were transformed by the method of principal components and the added water content and other compositional variables were regressed against the resultant PC scores to obtain calibration equations. The results were validated using both internal cross-validation (ICV) and a number of unknown samples. The main sources of error are discussed with particular reference to the standard method for determining added water.