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Some Factors Affecting the Evaluation of Pork Quality

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705

Abstract

Direct and interaction effects of breed of dam, line, sex and diet on objective and subjective measures of fresh and cooked samples of the longissimus muscle were studied. The effect of breed of dam in reciprocal crossbred pigs was significant only for color and firmness rating of the fresh sample. Cooked samples from control line crossbreds were significantly more tender according to the Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear test and palatability evaluation by the taste panel than samples from low-fat line crossbreds. Barrows had more intramuscular lipid than gilts. Cooked samples from barrows were more tender according to the WB shear test and taste panel. Diet differences significantly affected marbling rating, lipid percent and juiciness. Pigs fed a 12% protein diet exceeded pigs fed a 16% or 16% equivalent diet for each of these traits. Backfat thickness was largely independent of intramuscular lipid.

Color and firmness ratings were significantly correlated with WB shear and with taste panel tenderness rating, but correlations were too low to be of much predictive value. Marbling rating was significantly associated with lipid percent and juiciness rating of the cooked sample, but not with flavor or tenderness ratings. Lipid percent was correlated with juiciness but not with WB shear or other sensory measures of the cooked sample. The WB shear was significantly correlated with cooked sample flavor and tenderness. No single objective or subjective measure of the fresh sample appears to be highly enough correlated with palatability measures to be a reliable predictor of pork quality.

¹ Nonruminant Animal Nutrition Laboratory, Nutrition Institute, SEA, Federal Research, Beltsville, MD 20705.

² Meat Science Research Laboratory, Agricultural Marketing Research Institute, SEA, Federal Research, Beltsville, MD 20705.