Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) emerges as a non-destructive solution for assessing the quality of Iberian ham, a luxury Spanish product. Traditional quality controls involve costly and time-consuming chemical analysis and genotyping. HIS is a suitable tool to deal with such heterogeneous products, since it allows to acquire the whole surface of the sample and to know the spatial distribution of the main composition parameters, obtaining a more representative information. This study optimized a HSI system operating between 900-1700 nm for sliced Iberian ham quality assessment. After analyzing 104 samples, the most optimal region of interest for the subsequent development of prediction models was selected. Partial Least Regression (PLS) models were developed for the prediction of the content of salt, fat and proteins. The research demonstrates HSI's potential for fast, non-destructive quality evaluation, aiding producers in maintaining premium standards.
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