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Much of the variation in eating quality of pork can be attributed to differences in growth rate according to the results of a trial involving almost 900 pigs.
The eating quality of pork from pigs reared over a range of housing and nutritional treatments, designed to give a wide variation in lean tissue growth rate, has been studied in a16-treatment trial. Treatments included ad libitum and restricted feeding, different feed nutrient densities, group sizes, slatted or part-slatted floors and two slaughter weights.
Participants were the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the Meat and Livestock Commission, Milton Keynes (Guy, Chadwick, Edwards and Gill).
A total of 864 pigs, predominantly Large White x Large White-Landrace were used.
At slaughter, data were collected on hot carcass weight, back fat depth, pH and muscle temperature. Primal loin from one side of each pig was cut and back fat and muscle depth, ultimate pH and temperature recorded. A trained taste panel assessed juiciness, tenderness, pork, boar and abnormal flavour and overall acceptability.
An analysis of results indicated that although a large part of the variation in pork eating quality, particularly tenderness, can be explained by variation in growth rate, other factors are also implicated.
Feeding regimen was the main experimental variable affecting tenderness. This was significant even when data were corrected for growth rate.
Results were presented at the British Society of Animal Science Annual Conference, 5-7 April, York.