Breed and Slaughter Day Affects Carcase and Pork Quality

Abstract

In general, there is no direct market incentive to improve the technological, nutritional and sensory quality of pork. However, in order for the port industry to maintain or increase its market share at a competitive price, pork has to be of consistently high nutritional value. That is why novel measures of nutritional quality are being assessed to ensure that breeding programs can continue to improve pork quality. Pork nutritional quality is affected by many genetic and non-genetic factors such as breeds and slaughter day. There is currently no recent Australian assessment of the impact of breed and slaughter day on pork nutritional quality, including the iron content of pork. It was hypothesized that both breed and slaughter day have a significant effect on the technological and nutritional quality of pork.