Abstract

A standard diet and two finishing feeding strategies known to reduce muscle glycogen stores were investigated in combination with exercise immediately prior to slaughter in pigs. The objective was to determine the influence of muscle glycogen at slaughter on temperature and pH in post-mortem muscle, the colour, drip loss and Warner-Bratzler shear force of the meat. The muscle glycogen stores were reduced by strategic finishing feeding. In general, pH(45) (min) was higher in muscles from strategically fed pigs compared with control pigs. Exercise also resulted in higher pH(45 min) in control pigs compared to non-exercised control pigs, while the opposite was seen in muscles from strategically fed pigs. Exercise resulted in higher muscle temperatures in the carcasses irrespective of feeding strategy. pH(24) (h) were higher in M. biceps femoris and M. semimembranosus from exercised, strategically fed pigs compared with the corresponding controls. In contrast, irrespective of feeding strategy no difference in pH(24) (h) was registered in the meat of non-exercised pigs. Drip loss was lower in meat of strategically fed pigs compared with meat of control pigs. Moreover the drip loss was lowest in the meat of non-exercised pigs. The present study shows that strategic finishing feeding has high potential for the control of pork quality. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

strategic feeding; pork quality; WHC; muscle glycogen

Published in

Meat Science
2001, Volume: 59, number: 4, pages: 397-406
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Lundström, Kerstin

  • Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Food Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0309-1740(01)00092-4

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/85643