Abstract
This work addresses the use of ultrasound (US) and medical dual energy X-ray absorptiometry methods to predict
the fat content in green pork hams. Ultrasonic velocity (õ) and X-ray absorption were measured in 78 green
hams. An increase in the fat content involved an increase in õ and a decrease in the X-ray attenuationmeasured at
2 °C.Models developed to predict the fat content fromthe ultrasonic velocity or X-ray parameters provided errors
of 2.97% and 4.65%, respectively. The combination of both US and X-ray technologies did not improve prediction
accuracy. These models allowed green hams to be classified into three levels of fatness, with 88.5% and 65.4% of
the hams correctly classified when using models based on ultrasonic and X-ray parameters, respectively.
Therefore, US and X-rays emerge as useful quality control technologies with which to estimate the fat content
in green pork hams
