• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1618-1623
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dehairing methods and sex on various traits of pork quality, as well as on tissue levels of the boar taint compounds androstenone and skatole. At the early postmortem period, dehided pigs showed higher muscle pH levels (p<0.05), lower temperatures (p<0.05) and lower drip loss (p<0.001) than scalded pigs. Thus, the dehairing method can affect the early postmortem glycolytic rate and water-holding capacity. Moreover, the differences in meat quality traits between the genders were small, and not considered to have practical importance. The scalding method had only a limited effect on the androstenone content. On the other hand, the scalded entire males exhibited a lower content of skatole than the dehided entire males (p<0.01). These results appear to indicate that the heating treatment from the scalding process influenced the reduction of skatole content for the scalded entire males.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.314-319
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• 2007

The aims of this work were to compare the effects of dehairing methods and sex on pork quality and cold storage stability. For this study, one half of40 pigs were dehaired by scalding in the same abattoir, and the other half by dehiding. Each treatment consisted of one half gilts and one half castrated male pigs. Meat quality traits were measured at 24 hr after slaughter, and thiobarbituric acid (TBA), metmyoglobin contents and total plate counts (TPC) were evaluated at 1, 7, 14 and 21 days of cold storage. The carcass weight and backfat thickness of pigs dehaired by scalding were significantly higher than those dehided (p<0.05). Compared to scalded carcasses, dehided carcasses had a lower longissimus dorsi muscle temperature (p<0.05). Furthermore, dehided carcasses had significantly lower drip loss than scalded carcasses (p<0.05). However, meat color parameters were not affected by the dehairing method. During cold storage, TBA values of scalded carcasses were slightly higher initially, whereas the dehided carcasses had higher TBA values at 21 days (p<0.05). The total plate counts (TPC) associated with scalding and dehiding treatment were not significantly different at any point during cold storage. The TPC exponentially increased in both scalded and dehided carcasses from 7 to 14 days of cold storage.