Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in finding methods for classifying Iberian products as a function of pig feeding during fattening. On the other hand, and as far as the processing of the Iberian ham is concerned, although the procedure of pre-cure freezing raw thighs is progressively more carried out by the Iberian ham industries, it is not described within the processing of Iberian ham accurately. The first aim of this work was to characterize Iberian pig hams as a function of pig diet (montanera vs. high oleic acid concentrates) by means of physical, chemical and sensory features of raw thighs and dry-cured hams. The other goal was to study the effect of pre-cure freezing raw thighs from Iberian pigs on the quality parameters of fresh ham, through its processing and of dry-cured ham. Lipid composition analysis, specifically proportions of araquidonic (C20:4 n-6) and linolenic (C18:3 n-3) acids and the content of neophytadiene and ¿-tocopherol, as well as magnetic resonance imaging allowed the differentiation of Iberian hams from pigs fattened acorn and grass and oleic acid concentrates, in both raw and dry-cured ham. Pre-cure freezing Iberian raw thighs influenced the content of salt, being lower in frozen-thawed than in refrigerated hams. This procedure affected physicochemical features of the raw material notably, leading to scarce differences throughout the processing of hams and in the final product, which were more likely due to the differences in the salt content than to the pre-cure freezing procedure.
