Meat Quality Indicators and their Correlation in Two Crosses of Pigs

• Published in: Agriculturae Conspectus Scientificus Vol. 68; no. 2; p. 115
• Main Authors: Kušec, Goran, Kralik, Gordana, Petričević, Antun, Gutzmirtl, Hrvoje, Grgurić, Dražen
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Agronomski fakultet Zagreb 17.06.2003
• Subjects: breed; correlation; pork quality
• ISSN: 1331-7768; 1331-7776

The study was performed on 53 carcasses of three way crossed castrated pigs divided into two groups regarding the breed of the terminal sire (1st group; Pietrain, n=25 and 2nd group; Large White, n=28). After the slaughter at approximately 100 kg, following measurements were taken from MLD samples: pH45, pH24, water holding capacity (w.h.c.), consistency and Minolta L*a*b* values. Significant differences between the groups were found for pH45 (p<0.01) values and Minolta L* (p<0.01), a* (p<0.05) and b* (p<0.01) values, while no significant differences were found for pH24, w.h.c. and consistency. The classification of meat from both groups according to quality (PSE, suspicious, .normal.) by different criteria (pH45, pH24, Minolta L*) showed obvious discrepancies which may have occurred due to recently determined additional quality classes such as RSE, RFN and PFN which points out the need of further investigations in that direction. In the 1st group pH45 was not correlated with any other meat qulity traits, while in 2nd group significant correlations for this trait were found with pH24 (r=0.43) and w.h.c. (r=-0.51). Ultimate pH values measured on the pig carcasses of the 1st group were correlated with w.h.c (r=-0.46) and Minolta L* value (r=- 0.43), while in 2nd group this trait was significantly correlated with all other indicators of meat quality (p<0.01). In the 1st group of samples minolta L* values were significantly correlated also with w.h.c. (r=0.40), while in the 2nd group this indicator was in significant correlation with all other indicators with exception of pH45.