The influence of carcass backfat and intramuscular fat level on pork eating quality

✍ Scribed by Blanchard, Paul J; Willis, Malcolm B; Warkup, Chris C; Ellis, Mike

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 103 KB
• Volume: 80
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(20000101)80:1<145::aid-jsfa504>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

To evaluate the contribution of fatness level towards pork eating quality, carcass and meat eating quality data were analysed from 721 pigs of three genotypes (with 0, 0.25 and 0.50 Duroc inclusion level). Animals (entire male and female) were reared from 30 to 90 kg liveweight on one of seven feeding regimens which involved combinations of diet formulation and feeding level, so as to produce carcasses of widely differing fatness levels. This experimental design produced coef®cients of variation for classi®cation P 2 backfat thickness of 21.11 (mean 11.59 mm, SE 0.093) and intramuscular fat (IMF) of 63.60 (mean 13.4 g kg À1 , SE 0.33). The treatments also produced considerable variation for eating quality as assessed by trained sensory panel (1±8 scale) and objectively (shear force) as shown by the following coef®cients of variation: shear force 22.01% (mean 334 N, SE 2.77), juiciness 16.12% (mean 4.95, SE 0.297), tenderness 19.65% (mean 5.06, SE 0.370), pork ¯avour 13.22% (mean 4.56, SE 0.225), abnormal ¯avour 34.46% (mean 2.02, SE 0.259) and overall acceptability 18.42% (mean 4.78, SE 0.328). Correlation coef®cients between carcass fatness measurements and eating quality characteristics were calculated. Although shear force was signi®cantly correlated with both classi®cation P 2 (r = À0.213) and IMF (r = À 0.189), taste panel tenderness was not signi®cantly correlated to fatness level. Of the taste panel parameters evaluated, only juiciness showed a signi®cant correlation (P `0.05) with classi®cation P 2 (r = À 0.086). None of the eating quality characteristics as evaluated by taste panel correlated signi®cantly with IMF. These results do not support the belief that fatness level per se has a major in¯uence on pork eating quality.