Quantifying production, processing and post-slaughter effects on pork eating quality using random effects meta-regression

Effect of immunocastration and housing conditions on pig carcass and meat quality traits

The present study investigated the effects of immunocastration and housing conditions on carcass, meat, and fat quality traits. Immunocastrates (IC, n = 48), entire (EM, n = 48), and surgical castrates (SC, n = 48) male pigs were reared under three different housing conditions. The conditions were standard (n = 36), enriched (n = 36, twice as much space as standard and additional outdoor access), or standard with repeated social mixing (n = 72). Pigs of the IC group were vaccinated at the age of 12 and 22 wk. The animals were slaughtered in four batches, balanced for sex category and housing, at the age of 27 wk reaching 124.7 ± 1.0 kg. Immunocastration led to increased fat deposition (i.e., thicker subcutaneous fat at different anatomical locations, more leaf fat, fatter belly in IC than EM, P < 0.05) but did not affect muscularity traits. As a result, EM exhibited higher and SC lower (P < 0.05) carcass leanness than IC. Fatty acids composition of either subcutaneous or intramuscular fat (IMF) agreed with general adiposity, that is, IC were intermediate between EM and SC exhibiting the lowest and highest fat saturation (P < 0.05), respectively. Compared to SC, EM exhibited higher (P < 0.05) levels of muscle oxidation and collagen content than SC, with IC taking an intermediate position in the case of the level of peroxidation and collagen content, or closer to SC as regards to oxidation of muscle proteins (i.e., carbonyl groups). Meat quality (including marbling score, cooking loss, subjective color redness, and chroma) of IC was similar to EM, and both differed (P < 0.05) from SC. However, IC and SC had less (P < 0.05) tough meat than EM, consistent with protein oxidation. The effect of housing was less evident. Mixing of pigs resulted in lower (P < 0.05) carcass weight and fatness in all sex categories with lower (P < 0.05) oleic and higher (P < 0.05) arachidonic acid in IMF of EM.

Electrical stimulation or moisture infusion improves the eating quality attributes of loin and silverside cuts from female and immunocastrated male pigs

This study validated the effect of gender (female, immunocastrated male; n = 50), electrical stimulation (none or 150 mA constant current for 30 s at 2 min post-slaughter) and ageing period (2 or 14 d) on the eating quality of pork roast and stir fry sourced from the loin (M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum) and silverside (M. biceps femoris) and steak from the loin only. Moisture infusion was applied to 2 d aged, non-stimulated primals as a positive control treatment. Neither gender nor ageing period influenced (P > 0.05) eating quality. Electrical stimulation and moisture infusion were each effective interventions in improving pork eating quality, but their effects were inconsistent between the five cuts evaluated. No interventions achieved the fail rate target of <10% for quality grade for all cuts, indicating that additional interventions are needed to enable industry to consistently deliver high quality pork.

Guaranteeing the quality and integrity of pork - An Australian case study

The Australian pork industry is strongly committed to assuring the integrity of its product, with substantial research investment made over the past ten years to develop and implement systems to assure the consistency and quality of fresh pork and to enable accurate tracing of unpackaged fresh pork back to property of origin using trace elemental profiling. These initiatives are pivotal to allow Australian pork of guaranteed eating quality to be successfully positioned as higher value products, across a range of international and domestic markets, whilst managing any threats of product substitution. This paper describes the current status of the development of a predictive eating quality model for Australian pork, utilizing eating quality datasets generated from recent Australian studies. The implementation of trace elemental profiling, by Physi-Trace™, to verify and defend provenance claims and support the supply of consistently high eating quality Australian pork to its customers, is also discussed.

Guaranteeing consistently high quality Australian pork: are we any closer?

Considerable investment has been made by the Australian pork industry over several decades, to address key factors that affect pork quality, so as to improve consumer acceptability of pork and pork products. These outcomes have been utilised to inform on-farm quality assurance programs, develop effective solutions to negate boar taint issues associated with the production of entire males, drive continuous improvement in animal management and encourage new technologies to be implemented in both the production and processing sectors of the Australian pork supply chain. Australian Pork Limited’s Strategic Plan 2015–20 is focused on maintaining profitable and sustainable growth in existing markets and developing strong foundations to support new opportunities, both in Australia and internationally. Guaranteeing that pork available for purchase is always consistently high in eating quality will support ongoing consumer demand for pork through increased consumption frequency. However, achieving this on an everyday basis presents industry with significant challenges due to the many complex interactions among the production, processing and post-slaughter factors experienced by pigs, carcasses and pork that can influence final product quality, either singularly or in combination. The present paper describes recent quantitative studies to determine the size and effect of pathway parameters on eating quality attributes of fresh pork and knowledge gaps identified. Outcomes of consumer sensory studies to inform the development of a non-prescriptive cuts-based eating quality system for pork and commercially validate particular pathway interventions are detailed. Through the implementation of validated pathway interventions to optimise pork eating quality, the overall industry objective is to reduce eating quality fail rates of different pork cuts to less than 10%.