Technological and nutritional properties of meat from female wild boars (<i>Sus scrofa scrofa</i> L.) of different carcass weights

Abstract

Abstract. The aim of this work was to assess the technological and nutritional quality of meat from female wild boars. The muscle samples – Musculus longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) and Musculus semimembranosus (SM) – were taken from a total of 40 female wild boar after a hunt. Carcasses were allocated to five groups according to weight (group I – 30±5 kg; group II – 45±4.9 kg; group III – 60±4.7 kg; group IV – 75±5.2 kg; group V – 90±5 kg). Studies that have been carried out have shown that technological and nutritional properties of meat from wild boars depend on the mass of carcasses and the type of muscle. The pH of analyzed wild boar meat proved that there was normal glycolysis and glycogenolysis progress in all groups. The water holding capacity (WHC) of SM muscles from the lowest-weight carcasses was significantly (P≤0.01) lower as compared to the heavier carcasses. There were significant differences (P≤0.01) in the shear force of the LTL muscle between groups I, IV and V. The muscles cut from carcasses of a higher mass represent higher values of this parameter. The higher-mass carcasses were characterized by a darker color, which resulted from the higher concentration of myoglobin. The protein concentration increased with carcass weight. A similar effect of carcass weight on the content of intramuscular fat (IMF) was found. Due to the low calorie content, the meat of young wild boar may be an interesting and attractive component of the diet.

Effect of Age and Sex on the Quality of Offal and Meat of the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)

“…Borilova et al [27] in their study, give even higher cooking losses, measuring 36.74% in the meat from the shoulder and 37.08% in the meat from the leg. In the study of Kasprzyk et al [33] the cooking loss measured from 32.01 to 35.71% in the LTL muscle, and from 33.53 to 36.71% in the m. semimembransus. The measures of drip loss, free water and cooking loss are highly affected by the factors like the used method and muscle type, which are probably the major source of variability among the mentioned meat quality traits.…”

“…Compared to our study, Babicz et al [34] presented lower values of free water percentage, measuring 22.35-22.89% in the m. longissimus lumborum, and 22.10-22.35% in the m. adductor femoris from wild boar crosses with domestic breeds. While Kasprzyk et al [33] obtained the free water measurement in a range of 20.10-24.48% in the LTL, and 20.74-23.09% in the m. semimembranosus. The cooking loss values obtained in our study were optimal for the meat of the wild boar [6,10].…”

“…The following researchers: Pedrazzoli et al [28], Marchiori and Felício [31], Florek et al [32] and Kasprzyk et al [33], noted a great variability in range of wild boar meat colour parameters, most probably connected with the age, muscle type, diet as well as the level of bleeding out after the shot. According to Kasprzyk et al [33], the colour of meat from wild boars is affected by the carcass weight. They observed that brighter meat is typical for lighter animals (carcass weight of 30 kg and 45 kg), while wild boars with a carcass weight ≥60 kg characterize with darker meat.…”

Nutritional Composition of Game Meat from Wild Species Harvested in Europe

“…The influence of some factors on wild boar meat has been studied, and the most significant are: (i) the available food in the hunting grounds which finally determines meat composition, outstanding fat and protein content. In this way, a higher fat content has been found in wild boar meat from fenced hunting grounds, in areas where cereals are supplemented and in cultivated forest compared to areas/hunting grounds where only natural food is available [25,31,32,[42][43][44]; (ii) age, as when compared to juveniles, meat from adults has higher content of fat and protein, and lower water content [33,43,44]; (iii) the carcass weight, as there is a positive correlation between the protein content and the carcass weight [34]; (iv) the hunting period, because it has been demonstrated that the highest content of intramuscular fat is reached in wild boar harvested in winter compared to spring and summer, probably owing to the higher amount of available food from cultivated crops [35]. Interestingly enough, sex has no significant effect on meat proximate composition [31], though a study [44] found that younger females generally showed a higher content of protein than males, and another one observed a higher content of protein in meat from males [12].…”

“…When comparing the macronutrients content of wild boar meat to pork, the main difference is the lower fat and higher protein content of wild boar meat [25]. Thus, the mean values in pork loin are 4.6% for intramuscular fat and 21.4% for protein content [12,25,26,34,42,43]. One study has reported that the mean fat content of wild boar meat was 5.3%, being similar to pork [23].…”