Incidence of different pork quality categories in a Portuguese slaughterhouse: A survey

This study was designed to evaluate the incidence of the PSE/DFD status in a Portuguese pig slaughterhouse, covering two seasons of the year (spring and summer) in order to find out if the proportions of those poor meat quality categories were sufficient to concern the meat industry. Meat quality classification was based on the measurements of the pH(60), pH(24), drip losses and colour (L, a, b) in the longissimus dorsi muscle (between the last third and fourth ribs) of 380 pigs randomly chosen from the line. The high global incidence of PSE and likely PSE (30%) as well as DFD (10%) carcasses and the enormous variation of the meat quality between the different days of analysis proves that the pig population presents a great variation of halothane genotype and that handling procedures have to be optimized in order to decrease stress and glycogen store depletion. The percentage of PSE carcasses during the summer season was double that found in the spring, probably due to a higher environmental temperature and relative humidity.