Effects of Increasing Market Weight of Finishing Pigs on Backfat Thickness, Incidence of the 'Caky-fatty' Belly, Carcass Grade, and Carcass Quality Traits

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of increasing pig market weight on the incidence of the 'caky-fatty' belly, carcass grade and carcass quality traits. To this end, 500 (Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc market pigs consisting of equal numbers of barrows and gilts were slaughtered at body weights ranging from 85 to 150 kg and their carcasses were analyzed. Backfat thickness (BFT; mm) of the barrows and gilts regressed on live weight (kg) linearly as follows: BFT (y) = 0.1827x + 3.4825 (r 2 = 0.4671) and y = 0.2015x-0.6972 (r 2 = 0.4736), respectively. The caky-fatty belly, which, by definition of the present study, had = 55% fat by weight in the dorsal-side half of a 5 cm-wide belly strip between the 11 th and 12 th ribs, was found in 10 carcasses from barrows. However, no belly was condemned as 'caky-fatty' by the retailers. Total number of carcasses which were down-graded on account of overweight was as many as 101 (20.2%). The 1 + A-grade carcasses exhibited a superior intramuscular fat score to all other grades, but except for this and the defective quality traits, no visible differences were found in carcass quality among different carcass grades. In conclusion, the current carcass grading system, which is sparingly reflective of the carcass quality and also under-evaluates the larger but otherwise normal carcasses, may as well be revised. Moreover, the incidence of the caky-fatty belly appears not to be a critical factor to be considered when increasing the pig market weight.

Effects of the Plane of Nutrition on Physicochemical Characteristics and Sensory Quality Traits of the Muscle in Finishing Pigs

“…This is much greater than 21. 4 mm of BFT at the same live weight in the low-energy diet-fed high-lean pigs (Park et al ., 2009a), in which the retrospectively assessed optimum slaughter weight for superior carcass and meat quality is 128±5 kg on the criteria that the optimum BFT is 22±1 mm (Park, 2011; Park et al, 2013a; MAFRA, 2014) and that the BFT increases at a rate of 0.20 to 0.25 mm/kg live weight (Jeong et al ., 2010; Park and Lee, 2011; Park et al ., 2013b). If the same criteria are adopted for the present pigs endowed with a medium lean gain potential, the optimum slaughter weight is assessed to be 116±4 kg.…”

Effects of sires with different weight gain potentials and varying planes of nutrition on growth of growing-finishing pigs

“…According to the grading standard for pig carcasses, the upper and lower limits of carcass weight for the 1 + grade are 83.5 and 93.5 kg, respectively in Korea [ 24 ], which are equal to 109.9 and 123.0 kg by the liveweight, respectively, at a dressing percentage of 76%. In addition, backfat thickness should fall within a range between 17.5 and 24.5 mm to be eligible for the 1 + grade by Korean standards, which means that the optimum backfat thickness of market pigs is 21.5 mm if a standard deviation of 3 mm [ 25 ] is deducted from the upper limit of the 1 + grade as a safety margin. As such, the average backfat thickness of both M- and H-sires’ progenies at the market weight, which was optimal on the M or H plane (23.5 mm), but not on the L plane (over 26 mm), under the previous carcass grading standard (26.5 mm maximum to be eligible for the 1 + A grade; [ 16 ]), is now too high by the current standard.…”

Analysis on difference of consumer’s evaluation on visual features of pork cuts

“…However, the present result shows that the current consumers in Korea prefer pork belly with less fat and even fat distribution. This attitude might be motivated by the desire to prevent illnesses as pork belly often contains excessive fat [ 25 ] and it has been reported that the overconsumption of animal fat may lead to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes or cancers [ 26 ]. Therefore, Korean consumers may have negative perception of excessively fatty pork belly.…”