The continuous advancement of non-destructive testing technology has led to a surge in research on the application of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology within the meat products industry. HSI is capable of precisely identifying physical and chemical indicators such as salt, moisture, protein, and fat in dry-cured ham, including the coefficient of determination for salt content and the prediction error of water activity. It also evaluates sensory indicators like viscosity, color, and marbling, including the visualization and classification accuracy of marble patterns. Additionally, it can identify surface mold species with a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 86% for distinguishing ochratoxin A-producing bacteria from non-producing bacteria. The unique advantage of HSI which ‘fuses spectral and spatial information’ has enabled the development of various data processing models, such as partial least squares regression and support vector machine-discriminant analysis. These models allow for the simultaneous detection of multiple indicators and the visualization of component spatial distribution, offering an intuitive basis for quality control. This paper summarizes the progress of HSI technology in the quality inspection of dry-cured ham, analyzes its potential for industrial online inspection, including issues such as fat interference, and provides a foundation for future quality identification, optimization, and standardization of dry-cured ham.

The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of four different cooking methods, namely, steaming, boiling, microwaving and stir-frying, on the smart sensory and protein digestive properties of Mianning ham. The results of the electronic tongue and electronic nose showed that the flavor of steamed and boiled Mianning ham was better than those of microwaved and stir-fried hams. The analysis of amino acids revealed that glutamic acid was the main flavor presenting amino acid. The highest total amino acid content was found in the microwaved Mianning ham (17.80%) and the lowest in the steamed one (9.74%). In vitro digestion showed that the digestibility of the untreated ham was significantly lower than that of the treated ham. The particle size of the digested samples was significantly lower than that of the hams that had not been digested in vitro. The cooked ham without in vitro digestion had the largest particle size (4 591.33 nm) and the microwaved ham with in vitro digestion had the smallest particle size (146.10 nm). The results of sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that the protein of the digested Mianning ham degraded more thoroughly than that of undigested hams.