[Effect of stunning on pork muscle quality]

The following methods of insensitisation were tested for their effects on muscle pork quality: Electrocoma, 75 V, 15 sec; Electrocoma following intensive electrical stimulation and irritation of various parts of the animals's body, using the insensitising forceps; Dart gun insensitisation. Also tested was the action of muscle relaxants on pork quality. Minor deviation from proper practice of electrical insensitisation was found to cause no significant deterioration in cutlet muscle and ham muscle quality. However, intensive irritation immediately before insensitisation caused higher percentages of PSE (16.7 per cent) and DFD (16.7 per cent). Dart gun insensitisation was quite often followed by poorer quality in the form of watery and bright pork (25.0 per cent). This had detrimental consequences for boiled ham processing (higher loss rates). Sensorial assessment of boiled ham obtained from animals in various categories did not reveal any significant discrepancy between the above techniques. When muscle relaxants were used, muscle pork quality of pigs relaxed by means of succicholine dichloride was much better than that in animals to which electrical insensitisation had been applied. Characteristics of such better quality included slower decline in pH over 45 minutes after death and lower drip loss.