Dietary lecithin improves dressing percentage and decreases chewiness in the longissimus muscle in finisher gilts

Dietary Lecithin Supplementation Can Improve the Quality of the M. Longissimus thoracis

“…The correlation between objective measures (compression and shear force) and sensory evaluation of eating quality attributes especially tenderness has shown to be extremely variable, especially at low shear forces [ 23 ]. In light of this, it is possible that the reduction in hardness and chewiness values observed in the present studies and those of D’Souza et al [ 10 ] and Akit et al [ 11 ] were insufficient to decrease the shear force of pork considered tender (shear force < 5 kg) pork. In the only study where sensory studies were conducted on pork from pigs fed dietary lecithin, there was no effect of 8 g/kg dietary lecithin on shear force, juiciness or tenderness there was a decrease in pork that scored below average and therefore failed to satisfy consumers [ 24 ].…”

“…D’Souza et al [ 10 ] reported that 3 g/kg dietary lecithin supplementation reduced hardness and chewiness values of the m. Semitendinosus, whilst in this experiment, the reduced hardness and chewiness values of the m. Longissimus thoracis were reported for the 15 g/kg and 75 g/kg lecithin treatments and not the 3 g/kg lecithin treatment group. The study by Akit et al [ 11 ] found that lecithin at 4, 20 and 80 g/kg reduced cohesiveness and chewiness of the m. Longissimus lumborum with no statistical within lecithin dose effects. However, the hardness values for pork from pigs fed 4 g/kg were intermediate between controls and those fed 20 g/kg [ 11 ].…”

“…The study by Akit et al [ 11 ] found that lecithin at 4, 20 and 80 g/kg reduced cohesiveness and chewiness of the m. Longissimus lumborum with no statistical within lecithin dose effects. However, the hardness values for pork from pigs fed 4 g/kg were intermediate between controls and those fed 20 g/kg [ 11 ]. The difference in hardness values for the m. Semitendinosus and the m. Longissimus thoracis and lumborum may be indicative of the differences in muscle characteristics such as muscle bundle size and the size of the perimysium surrounding the muscle bundles.…”

“…There have been very few studies conducted with dietary lecithin in grower/finisher pigs and effects on ADG and FCR have been variable. Studies from our laboratories have failed to observe any effect on ADG, final liveweight or FCR [ 10 , 11 , 24 ], although in one study there was in increase in dressing rate [ 11 ]. In contrast, Kim et al [ 28 ] reported that dietary lecithin improved ADG and feed efficiency and suggested that the improved feed efficiency was due to a more efficient dietary tallow digestibility given the emulsifying properties of lecithin.…”

“…For example, PPC inhibits prolyl-4-hydroxylase resulting in reduced collagen fibril cross-linking and stimulates collagenase causing collagen breakdown in the liver of nonhuman primates [ 8 , 9 ]. In pigs, dietary lecithin (3 mg/kg) has been shown to decrease the compression characteristic of pork [ 10 , 11 ], possibly through decreasing the amount of collagen or the extent of collagen cross-linking [ 11 ]. Additionally, dietary lecithin supplementation reduces cholesterol absorption and low density lipoprotein cholesterol in humans [ 12 ] and it is possible that it may have a similar effect in pigs.…”