Use of NMR relaxometry for determination of meat properties: a brief review

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is a non-destructive and rapid meat analytical technique. Since meat has high proton content, the quality of fresh meat can be assessed by exciting proton spin using NMR laboratory apparatus. NMR allows the assessment of intrinsic properties including animal development stages and muscle type, as well as extrinsic factors including processing and storage conditions that affect the technological traits of meat. It can be used to determine the water-holding capacity of meat, water distribution in muscles, meat authentication, fat content, post mortem aging, rigor mortis, and changes in metabolomes, among others. Changes in NMR relaxation times are associated with the changes in muscle components and their distribution as affected by various processing conditions. Since, industrial assessment is now demanding rapidity and real-time assessment, it is therefore essential to evaluate the potential of NMR in contrast to other techniques. Therefore, this review article presents the principle of working of NMR, various methods available, quality traits of meat that can be evaluated using this technique, and a brief history. This review article will help the industry to adopt novel NMR-based meat quality assessment tools for rapid quality determinations.