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Published on: September 30, 2019
Effect of organic and conventional rearing system on the mineral content of pork
Yan Zhao1, Donghua Wang1, Shuming Yang1
1Institute of Quality Standard & Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Key Laboratory of Agro-product Quality and Safety, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100081, China.
Abstract:
Dietary composition and rearing regime largely determine the trace elemental composition of pigs, and consequently their concentration in animal products. The present study evaluates thirteen macro- and trace element concentrations in pork from organic and conventional farms. Conventional pigs were given a commercial feed with added minerals; organic pigs were given a feed based on organic feedstuffs. The content of macro-elements (Na, K, Mg and Ca) and some trace elements (Ni, Fe, Zn and Sr) in organic and conventional meat samples showed no significant differences (P>0.05). Several trace element concentrations in organic pork were significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to conventional pork: Cr (808 and 500μg/kg in organic and conventional pork, respectively), Mn (695 and 473μg/kg) and Cu (1.80 and 1.49mg/kg). The results showed considerable differences in mineral content between samples from pigs reared in organic and conventional systems. Our results also indicate that authentication of organic pork can be realized by applying multivariate chemometric methods such as discriminant analysis to this multi-element data.
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