Assessing Water Activity in Dry-Cured Ham using Microwave Spectroscopy

Microwave spectroscopy have been applied in numerous applications in the non-food industry, and recently also in the food industry, for non-destructive measurements. In this study, a dry-cured ham model was designed and water activity, water content and salt content (sodium chloride) were determined for all samples using chemical analysis. The water activity was also measured using microwave spectroscopy, with a rectangular microwave cavity resonator. Attained results indicate that microwave spectroscopy might be a promising technique for determination of water activity in dry-cured ham.