Roger Johnson Farmland Foods

Publish Date: August 26, 2015

A number of factors affect pork quality, with swine genetics, preslaughter handling, harvest, and pork carcass chilling having the greatest impacts. However, there is considerable evidence indicating that manipulating the nutrient composition of swine diets may offset the negative effects of genetic predisposition and/or pig handling on pork quality, and may actually enhance pork quality traits of well-handled pigs of good quality genotypes. Pork quality traditionally refers to the measurement of muscle pH, color, firmness, marbling or intramuscular fat (IMF) content, shelf-life, and cooked pork palatability. Yet, domestic and international consumers may define pork quality in terms associated with environmental, ethical, and animal welfare aspects of pork production, whereas pork processors typically include fat color, firmness, and composition, as well as nutrient composition and microbiological safety in their definition of pork quality. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the effects of dietary modifications on: 1) postmortem muscle metabolism and technological quality attributes (i.e., pH, color, and water-holding capacity); 2) pork IMF content; 3) pork fat quality; 4) color and lipid stability during refrigerated storage/display; and 5) cooked pork palatability.

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

Muscle is a highly complex tissue that works within a narrow range of physiological conditions. After an animal is harvested, conditions within the muscle change, and muscle gradually loses its ability to function. As a consequence, a number of physical and chemical changes take place over time as muscle is converted to meat. It is the rate and the extent of these changes that influence the ultimate quality attributes of the resulting meat products.