Influences ofAging Methods and Temperature on Meat Quality of Pork Belly from Purebred Berkshire and Crossbred Landrace?Yorkshire?Duroc (LYD) Pigs

Abstract

We studied effects of aging methods and temperature on the physical, chemical, and amino acid composition of pork belly from Berkshire and Landrace?? Yorkshire??Duroc (LYD) swine. Pork belly samples were assigned randomly to breed groups (Berkshire and LYD), aging temperature groups (0??C and 9??C), and aging method groups. One samples of vacuum-packaged hanging pork bellies were hung in a refrigerated cooler with 83??2.0% humidity, while the other samples were immersed in a 3.5% salt solution in a vacuum package and subsequently stored in the same cooler for 2 weeks. LYD pork had lower pH and purge loss and higher lightness values than those of Berkshire pork (p<0.05). Moreover, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and hardness values of LYD pork were lower than those of Berkshire pork after aging (p<0.05). Berkshire pork had a higher level of flavorful amino acids than LYD pork did during aging (p<0.05). Bellies aged at elevated temperatures for two weeks had higher volatile basic nitrogen. However, significantly higher percentages of flavorful and sweet taste amino acids were observed in bellies aged at 9??C compared to those aged at 0??C for 2 weeks. Moisture content was higher in immersed samples than hanging samples after two weeks of aging (p<0.05). Hanging pork bellies exhibited higher texture profiles than immersed pork bellies at two weeks (p<0.05). We concluded that breeds, aging temperature, and methods affected most quality attributes of pork belly.