• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.271-281
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• 1999

The cost of production of high quality pork is compensated by high returns, but constraints by the market are increasing. A few opportunities to maintain and improve pork quality by dietary means are presented. The healthy value of pork is a prerequisite. A careful control of suppliers and preservation of feeds are essential to protect pork against presence of contaminants from the feed. The feeding level and some dietary components modify the partition of the dietary energy into different pig tissues and chemical components of pork, affecting the hygienic and nutritional value, tenderness and taste. It is difficult to transfer a nutrient from the diet to pork, if the requirements. for growth are satisfied. Fatty acids and Vitamin E are the most studied exceptions. There is some evidence that iron and selenium contents can be affected too. Varying the content of a nutrient frequently changes sensorial and technological properties of pork. The addition of oils improves the acidic profile of depot fats, but the effect on phospholipid composition is not well studied and negative effects on oxidability and consistency of meat products are observed. Vitamin E can improve many healthy and sensorial characteristics, but its effect is clearer when the meat is stressed or manipulated.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.286-292
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of freezing and thawing methods on the quality of pork meat. The freezing methods for pork meat were the cryogenic freezing with liquid nitrogen gas, fast freezing at $-70^{\circ}C$ and normal freezing at $-20^{\circ}C$. The thawing methods were tested on low temperature thawing at refrigerative temperature($4^{\circ}C$), room temperature($20^{\circ}C$), high temperature($60^{\circ}C$) and using microwave. The quality of pork meat frozen by cryogenic methods was better than those of fast and normal freezing methods. The cooking hardness of pork meat frozen by cryogenic method showed the highest value as 1,898 g. In case of fast freezing, the hardness of pork meat was 1,472 g and that of normal frozen pork meat was 1,541 g. The high cooking hardness value of cryogenic frozen pork meat showed that the cryogenic freezing method made less freeze damage like textural softness. The drip-loss of pork meat thawed at refrigerative temperature($4^{\circ}C$), room temperature($20^{\circ}C$), high temperature($60^{\circ}C$) were shown lower than that of microwave thawing. The cooking hardness of pork meat that was thawed by microwave showed the lowest value among the thawing methods. The cryogenic freezing was the most useful freezing method for preserving quality, decreasing the freeze damage of pork meat. And thawing at refrigerative temperature was the most effective method to prevent quality loss and weight loss by drip-loss.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.965-971
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• 2010

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of different maternal nutrition treatments during pregnancy on body weight, muscle fiber number, carcass traits, and pork quality traits of offspring. A total of 18 crossbred sows (Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire${\times}$Duroc) were randomly assigned to one of three nutritional treatment groups; control, high energy, and high protein. The control group was fed a standard diet, the high energy group was fed a diet that contained 30% increased metabolizable energy, and the high protein group was fed a diet that contained 30% increased limiting amino acids compared to the control. The sows in each group were fed equal quantities of each diet (1.9 kg/d) for the entire gestational period. A total of 36 piglets from each sow were used to evaluate changes in body weight, muscle fiber number in the longissimus dorsi muscle at birth, carcass traits, and pork quality traits. Birth weight of offspring born to sows in the high energy diet group was significantly higher compared to the high protein diet group (p<0.05). However, body weight of offspring after birth was not significantly different between the groups. Muscle fiber number for the longissimus dorsi muscle at birth was not significantly different between the groups. In addition, there were no significant differences in carcass traits or pork quality traits between offspring born to sows in the control group and those born to sows that received high energy or high protein diets during pregnancy. Based on these results, it appears that maternal nutrition treatment during pregnancy, regardless of whether it is with high energy or high protein diets, does not have a significant effect on body weight, muscle fiber number at birth, carcass traits, or pork quality traits.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.1055-1065
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• 2020

This study investigated the effects of brine injection and high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) on the quality characteristics of pork loin. Brine with ionic strength conditions (0.7% vs 1.5% NaCl, w/v) were injected into pork loins, and the meat was pressurized up to 500 MPa for 3 min. As a quality indicator, moisture content, color, cooking loss and texture profile analysis (TPA) of pork loins were estimated. Based on the results, brine with low ionic strength (0.7% NaCl) resulted in low injection efficiency and high cooking loss, although, it improved tenderness of pork loin at moderate pressure level (~200 MPa). While high ionic strength condition (1.5% NaCl injection) lowered the hardness of pork loins at relatively high HHP level (400-500 MPa), it also caused high cooking loss. To commercialize the brine injected pork loins, it was necessary to regulate brine compositions, which was not evaluated in this study. Nevertheless, the present study demonstrated that brine injection followed by moderate pressure (200 MPa) could improve the tenderness of pork loins without causing other major quality losses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.1092-1098
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• 1999

Gamma irradiation was applied to pork for improving its hygienic quality and evaluating its possible genotoxicity. The effective dose of irradiation was 3 kGy in pork for the sterilization of all contaminated microorganisms tested. After 8 weeks of storage at 5oC, no growth of microorganisms except for psychrophile and total aerobic bacteria was observed in the more than 3 kGy irradiated pork. The genotoxicity of high dose irradiated pork(30 kGy) was evaluated by Salmonella typhimurium reversion assay, chromosomal aberration test and in vivo micronucleus assay. The results were negative in the bacterial reversion assay with S. typhimurium TA98, TA100, TA1535, TA1537. In chromosomal aberration tests with CHL cells and in vivo mouse micronucleus assay, no significant difference in the incidences of chromosomal aberration and micronuclei was seen between nonirradiated and 30 kGy irradiated porks. These results indicate that 30 kGy irradiated pork did not show any genotoxic effects under these experimental conditions.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.4_spc
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• pp.755-774
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• 2024

The main objective of this study was to present data on the current situation and future trends of pig meat production in the European Union-27 (EU). Pig production has played an important social and economic role for centuries in many states of the EU. In 2022, pig meat production in the EU reached 23 M tons, which represented 21% of total production worldwide. The two key reasons that justify such amount of pork produced, are the acceptance and high consumption of the meat by the local population and the high quality of the meat produced which facilitated pork export. However, current data show a reduction in pork production for the last three years, as a consequence of a series of events that include i) problems with the chain of ingredients supply, ii) uncontrolled increase in African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks, iii) fast recovery of pig production in China, iv) increasing concerns by the rural population on the high cost to meet future requirements of the EU legislation on farm management, environmental sustainability and animal welfare, v) increased cost of all inputs involved in pig production and vi) limited interest of the new farmer generation to work on the pig sector. Consequently, pork production is expected to decrease in the EU for the next years, although sales will be maintained at a relative high level because pork is the meat preferred by local consumers in most EU countries. In order to maintain the favourable position of the pork industry in the near future, strategies to implement include: i) maintain the quality of the meat destinated to export markets, ii) improve the control of outbreaks of ASF and other swine diseases, iii) implementation of technological innovations to improve working conditions making more attractive to work in the pork sector of the food chain to the new generation of farmers and workers.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.318-322
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• 2015

In the modern pork industry, selection of high intramuscular fat (IMF) in pigs is necessary to improve pork quality. Ultrasound has been used previously to predict subcutaneous fat thickness and IMF in the longissimus muscles of line pigs and Real-time ultrasound has also been reported as a reliable method for estimating IMF in live pigs. So we estimate the correlation between meat quality traits and IMF percentage to investigate the possibility of utilizing real-time ultrasound technology for predicting IMF percentage in line pigs to improve pork quality. The genetic and phenotypic correlations for chemical intramuscular fat (CIMF) and ultrasound intramuscular fat (UIMF) were estimated to be 0.75 and 0.76, respectively. These results suggest that genetic factors strongly influence meat quality. The genetic and phenotypic correlation between UIMF and CIMF were 0.75, 0.76, respectively. The heritability of UIMF and CIMF were 0.48 and 0.50, respectively. So we concluded that CIMF can be replaced with UIMF and Ultrasound machines can be used to test IMF in live swine. In future, UIMF can be utilized to improve pork quality as an alternative to CIMF.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.115-121
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• 2014

This study explored the effects of water or brine (2% NaCl, w/v) immersion thawing combined with ultrasound treatment (40 kHz, 150 W) on the quality characteristics of pork. Ultrasound treatment of pork was conducted in two cold media (at $4^{\circ}C$), water and 2% (w/v) brine, respectively. Because the ultrasound treatment caused temperature increase in the media from $4^{\circ}C$ to $16^{\circ}C$, the qualities of pork thawed by ultrasound were compared with those thawed by immersion either in water or brine where the temperature was being maintained at either $4^{\circ}C$ (low temperature control) or $17^{\circ}C$ (high temperature control). The ultrasound treatment resulted in rapid thawing of pork where the thawing rate was similar to those thawed in the $17^{\circ}C$ media. For quality characteristics, ultrasound-treated pork in brine had an advantage of less cooking losses when comparing to the control. In particular, ultrasound treatment in brine exhibited the lowest shear force (or highest tenderness) among the freezing/thawing treatments. Although the ultrasound processing in brine caused discoloration of the pork, this thawing technique had potential to be applied as a commercial thawing technology for frozen foods.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.369-376
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• 2016

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dry aging on the quality of pork loin. Longissimus lumborum muscles were dissected from the right half of five pork carcasses and were used as the control samples. The left halves of the carcasses were aged at 2±1℃ and a relative humidity of 80% for 40 d. The total aerobic bacteria count was similar between the control and dry-aged pork loin (p>0.05). Lactic-acid bacteria was absent in both the control and dry-aged pork loins. Dry-aged pork loin contained low moisture and high protein and ash compared to the controls (p<0.05). The pH was higher and cooking loss was lower in dry-aged pork loin compared to that in the control (p<0.05). Flavor related compounds, such as total free amino acid, hypoxanthine, and inosine of pork loin were higher in dry-aged pork loin; whereas, inosine 5'-monophosphate and guanosine 5'-monophosphate were low in dry-aged pork loin than control (p<0.05). There was no difference in carnosine and anserine content between dry-aged pork loin and the control (p>0.05). Dry-aged pork loin had lower hardness and shear force and received higher core in sensory evaluation than the control (p<0.05). According to the results, dry aging improved textural and sensorial quality of pork loin.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.71-79
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• 2015

This study was performed to determine the effect of multilayered fish oil (FO) emulsion without or with trans-cinnamal-dehyde on pork patties. Multilayered FO (-primary, -secondary, -tertiary) emulsions were prepared using a layer-by-layer deposition technique with Tween 20, chitosan, and low methoxyl pectin, and were added to pork patties at the same concentration. Pork patties were then stored for 20 d in a refrigerator ($5^{\circ}C$) to study changes in quality. The results showed that the pH value of all samples significantly decreased but cooking loss increased during storage (p<0.05). However, water-holding capacity and moisture content showed no remarkable difference between treatments and storage periods (p>0.05). All pork patties containing multilayered FO (treated samples) showed higher values for lightness and significantly lower values for yellowness compared to control pork patties (untreated sample). Lipid oxidation was higher in treated pork patties than in control pork patties during storage. In addition, lipid oxidation and total viable bacterial count in pork patties decreased as the number of coating layers increased. However, hardness, cohesiveness, and springiness of all samples showed no significant change during storage (p>0.05) as compared to fresh pork patties. Furthermore, these did not remarkable change with addition of trans-cinnamaldehyde in all pork patties. From our results, we suggest that FO emulsion did not affect the texture characteristics of fresh pork patties, indicating that it could be used to improve the quality of pork patties by contributing high-quality fat such as unsaturated fatty acids.