Development of an eating quality system for the Australian pork industry

摘要

Tenderness, juiciness and flavour are the key eating quality attributes that influence consumer appreciation of pork, but there is no simple 'on-line', low cost tool available to industry to grade carcases for these traits. Previous research has determined and documented the importance of a number of pre- and post-slaughter management factors on the eating quality of pork, but this information has not been integrated into an eating quality system. The objective of this project is to develop a cuts-based eating quality assurance system, with clearly defined production pathways from production to consumption, to enable the Australian pork industry to supply customers with consistently high quality pork. Key critical control points have been quantified from this initial work on non-prescriptive predictive models for pork eating quality.