Pork Quality

Publish Date: June 20, 2018

Pork quality is important to consumers and the meat and grocery markets. In this video, you will see exactly what are the pork quality attributes and the industry's stride to improve quality to meet consumers demand. This video includes and overview of the numerous factors that attribute to pork quality and how to measure the attributes.

Publish Date: July 8, 2014

Curing impacts meat product attributes, resulting in unique product characteristics, when compared to fresh meat products. Traditionally, meat curing has been associated with processed meats for the purpose of altering color, flavor, safety, and shelf-life characteristics (Sebranek & Fox, 1985).

Publish Date: December 13, 2012

Marketed under the trade-name Paylean™ (Elanco Animal Health, Greenfield, IN), ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC) is a phenethanolamine β-adrenergic agonist used as a feed supplement to redirect nutrients to improve live pig performance (daily gain and feed conversion efficiency) and fat-free lean yields in pork carcasses [1]. Research was initiated in the 1980’s and RAC was FDA-approved for inclusion in swine finishing diets in December 1999. Initial approval included an inclusion range of 4.5 to 18 g/ton and fed from 150 to 240 lb. In 2006, the label changed to include an inclusion range from 4.5 to 9 g/ton of feed and to be fed for the last 50 to 90 lbs of body weight gain prior to market. This overview summarizes all levels of Paylean feeding; however, as producers consider the current, approved feeding level, more emphasis should be placed on the 4.5 to 9 g/ton data. The specific focus of the factsheet is an overview of the effects of RAC on fresh pork quality and cooked pork palatability.

Publish Date: 20120702

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding 0, 5, 10, or 15% distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) on carcass quality, color stability, and sensory characteristics of the longissimus muscle (LM) of finishing pigs. Two hundred forty pigs (61.7 lb) were assigned to 1 of 4 dietary treatments with varying concentrations of…

Publish Date: May 15, 2012

Humans use color and marbling to judge the ‘value’ or quality of a product, often comparing and choosing a product based on expectations and past experiences. Choices made based on visual evaluation, which requires no physical contact, pose very little risk; therefore, when a product does not meet ‘color expectations’, it is an easy decision to deem a product ‘unacceptable’. Color and marbling influences purchasing decisions as to whether a food is acceptable for consumption so measuring these aspects are important to the industry.

Publish Date: April 6, 2012

Reviewed June 2020 The properties of fresh and processed pork are dependent on factors related to composition of the product such as moisture, lipid and protein content. It is important to recognize, however, that it is not just the amount of these components, but rather the characteristics of protein, lipid and water that are responsible for differences in pork color, texture, water holding capacity and tenderness. In many cases, it is the proteins in pork that are primarily important in the variations that are observed in these traits. The state and nature of proteins are primarily responsible for pork color, pork texture, pork tenderness and water holding capacity.

Publish Date: April 9, 2010

There are 3,000 US companies producing meat products with combined annual revenue of about $85 billion (Research and Markets Ltd., 2009). They produce about 40 billion pounds of beef products per year, and 30 billion pounds of pork. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of factors that affect consumer behavior regarding pork purchase and consumption which may allow the pork industry to maximize demand for pork in the marketplace and successfully compete with other animal protein sources.

Publish Date: 20060717

North Carolina State University Pork Quality Research from 2002. Water supplementation with 900 ppm Mg for either 0, 2, 4, or 6 d prior to slaughter was evaluated as a means to improve pork quality. Hot carcass weights and carcass temperature and pH (45 min and 24 hr) were determined after slaughter. Chops from the…

Publish Date: 20060604

The main goals of the United States Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) oil program are prevention, preparedness and response to oil spills. It is important that EPA and industry be able to prevent, prepare for, and respond to oil spills. However, EPAs primary focus is on prevention. Although oil spills will always occur, it is important…

Publish Date: 20060918

Purdue University 1997 Swine Research Report. Much work has been done on developing equations for estimating fat-free lean mass and carcass value in pigs (Akridge et al., 1992; and Boland et al., 1995). However, most equations currently in use have not been evaluated for the extent to which they account for genotype and sex differences…