Telling porkies

Can the measured quality in one part of a pig predict quality in the rest of it? What is the true variability in pork quality out there and what's causing it?

A team of researchers from University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Sciences, USDA and Smithfield Foods recently tested nearly 8000 commercially raised pigs to find the answers.

The team looked at correlations between loin quality and quality of the belly and ham from the same pig, with quality defined mostly by colour and tenderness. No correlation between loin quality and the quality of other cuts could be established. So a good loin doesn’t mean great bacon and ham.

The researchers also looked at understanding how much variability exists in pork products and where it comes from. They looked at every possible aspect of pork quality and tried to pinpoint the major sources of variability in the dataset — including season, production focus, marketing group and sex — as well as variation within individual animals. In the end, those individual differences accounted for the largest portion of the variability.

Finding that the majority of the variability was within individual pigs and not in any particular management practice is good news for producers but doesn’t help food professionals in their quest for quality and consistency.

The research has been published over five articles in the Journal of Animal Science.