Effect of two sous-vide cooking methods on fatty acid composition and oxidative stability of longissimus thoracis muscle from pigs receiving a diet containing or not extruded linseed

To verify the effects of two different sous-vide cooking conditions on lipid oxidation and fatty acid (FA) composition of longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle, 24 pigs, evenly divided into two groups of 12 subjects each, were used. One group received a barley-soya bean meal diet (C) and the second was given the same feed where 5% of extruded linseed partly replaced barley, to obtain a n-3 FA enriched diet (L). At slaughter, from each left half carcase, two samples of LT muscle were collected, packed under vacuum and stored at −18 °C until analysis. The samples were cooked in water bath according to two different methods: at high temperature (80 °C) and short-time i.e. samples left until the core temperaturereached 70 °C (A); at low temperature (60 °C) and long-time (15 h) (B). After cooking, the samples were refrigerated (2 °C) for 24 h. Oxidative stability was measured by a dosage of the 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) content, expressed as milligrams of malondialdehyde (MDA)/kg of meat, and FA composition was determined by capillary gas chromatography. The content of each fatty acid is expressed as a percentage of the total FAs detected. The statistical analysis was performed by means of ANOVA, using the GLM procedure of SAS. Dietary treatment (C vs. L) and cooking condition (A vs. B) were used as independent variables. The different sous-vide cooking conditions affected neither lipid oxidation nor FAs percentage of LT muscle. Extruded linseed feeding brought about an increase of the percentage of total n–3 FA (2.67 vs. 0.98; p<.01) and also of polyunsaturated fatty acids (12.02 vs. 9.68; p<.01) in intramuscular fat but did not affect lipid oxidation. This enabled to obtain pork with a more favourable n–6/n–3 ratio (3.68 vs. 10.42 in L and C group, respectively; p<.01), according to the global health guidelines. Thus, an enriched linseed diet ameliorates the FA composition of pork. The effect of the two different sous-vide cooking methods on lipid composition and oxidative stability of pork does not differ, irrespective of dietary treatments

Describing backfat and Semimembranosus muscle fatty acid variability in heavy pigs: Analysis of non–genetic factors

This study aimed to describe the multivariate structure of Semimembranosus muscle and backfat fatty acid (FA) composition in 798 Italian Large White heavy pigs and to investigate the effects of environmental factors and carcass characteristics on FA variations. The total FA variability in muscle and backfat was characterized by a negative correlation between saturated and polyunsaturated FAs, which strongly depended on the carcass adiposity. Slaughtering season was also relevant, with pigs slaughtered in autumn having more n-6 FAs and eicosadienoic acid in backfat, while pigs slaughtered in winter displayed more saturated FAs. Regarding Semimembranosus muscle, pigs with heavier belly cuts and slaughtered in autumn had higher proportions of cis-vaccenic and palmitoleic acids, while those slaughtered in summer had more saturated FAs. Slaughtering season emerged as a relevant factor shaping both backfat and muscle FA composition, indicating that more studies and attention should be paid to environmental factors, which may have effects on FA metabolism and deposition in finishing pigs

Effect of feeding maltodextrins and dextrose on rearing and slaughtering performance of immunocastrated male pigs

This study aimed to verify previous research findings showing that feeding maltodextrins (M) and dextrose (D) leads to a reduction of voluntary feed intake in the Italian heavy pig. This may be interesting for immunocastrated pigs fed ad libitum (ad lib.), whose feed intake skyrockets after the 2nd vaccination, causing too fatty carcasses at slaughtering. Thirty-six male pigs (Italian Duroc x Italian Large White crossbred) received a double immunocastrating injection at 90 and 162 days of age. At 120 days, weighing 51.84+4.38 kg, the subjects were evenly housed in 9 boxes, fed ad lib. till the 2nd injection and then given, until slaughtering (197 days of age; 144.51±9.70 kg), one of the experimental diets: control diet, ad lib. (CL); control diet, restricted at 7.5% l.w.0.75 (CR); with MD (3.5 + 3.5%; adjusted for energy and protein), ad lib. (MD). The CR diet was introduced as the alternative choice to avoid too fatty carcasses. Compared to the restricted ones, pigs fed ad lib. (with or without MD) showed statistically higher (P<.01) ADG (1325 and 1325 vs 905 g/d), ADFI (4630 and 4637 vs 2760 g/d), feed:gain ratio (3.53 and 3.52 vs 3.11), and heavier carcasses (125.1 and 124.4 vs 113.2 kg; P<.01) with lower lean meat content (52.21 and 52.09 vs 55.83 %; P<.01). The results point out how immunocastrated pigs fed ad lib. showed similar rearing and slaughtering performance regardless of the inclusion of M and D in the diet

ESTIMATION OF REAL PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF MEAT IN ITALY

Food consumption refers to the amount of food available for human consumption. The knowledge of food consumption is crucial to set production and food supply policies, to compare eating habits with other countries, to assess the nutritional status of a population and to study the relationship between diet and health. In the last years all these aspects have taken an increasingly important interest because epidemiological studies have indicated a possible association between high consumption of meat and an risk of several forms of cancer as well as metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately meat consumption is often estimated by methods that are inappropriate for this use because they do not represent the actual amount of meat consumed or, better, eaten by the consumers. The actual food consumption may be lower than the quantity shown as food availability depending on the magnitude of wastage and losses of food during the slaughtering, in the household, e.g. during storage, in preparation and cooking, as plate-waste or quantities fed to domestic animals and pets, thrown or given away The consumption estimated by FAO and by statistical offices of the various countries through the national food balance sheets does not indicate the amount of meat, ie the weight of the skeletal muscles of animals with included or adherent tissues, but the amount of the weighted carcass at the slaughterhouse, including bones, tendons, connective tissues and fat. This paper discusses a method of estimating the real per capita consumption of meat in Italy with accuracy comparable to that of individual consumption, developed by the Study Commission of Animal Science and Production Association (ASPA). This action responds to the need of producing statistical indicator related to health food, as recommended by many international organizations (FAO, Eurostat)

Pig meat-health: a possible binomial?

Meat and meat products are important sources of essential nutrients for humans, but recent epidemiological studies have associated red meat and processed meat consumption with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer due to saturated fatty acids, added salt, oxidative products, N-Nitroso compounds that develop during processing steps, and oxidative capacity of HEME-Iron. Moreover, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has recently defined red meat as probably carcinogenic and cured meat as carcinogenic. This has created considerable alarm among consumers, a significant reduction in consumption of these products and a remarkable negative impact on the market. Europe, with about 150 million of pigs and a yearly production of about 22 million tons carcass weight, is the second biggest producer of pork in the world, and the Mediterranean area of Europe is known around the world for the high quality of processed pig meat products. Therefore, it seems very important to develop new strategies of production and processing that can improve the healthful features of pork and derived products. The paper focuses on some of these strategies

Influence of linseed and antioxidant-rich diets in pig nutrition on lipidoxidation during cooking and in vitro digestion of pork

Enrichment of pig diets with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is considered an emerging strategy to increasetheir intake in the human diet. However, PUFA are particularly vulnerable to oxidative reactions leading to thegeneration of toxic compounds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of supplementation of pig dietswith extruded linseed (L), either or not in combination with synthetic antioxidants (E, tocopheryl-acetate andselenium) or natural extracts (P, grape-skin and oregano), and basal diet (C, without linseed) on the oxidativestability in raw, grilled andin vitrodigested pork. The diet supplementation with antioxidant-rich ingredientsresulted in the accumulation of specific metabolites in meat. Actually, 11 different phenolic- and 6 tocopherol-derived metabolites were identified by UHPLC/HR-MS. These metabolites were potentially correlated with thereduction in the oxidative phenomena occurring during meat cooking and digestion. Specifically, 16% and 35%reduction in the amounts of lipid hydroperoxides and TBA-RS were assessed after cooking of meat from P diet,respect to the L diet. Diet supplementations withα-tocopheryl acetate and selenium reduced the oxidativereactions only during meat cooking. A significant reduction was attended at the end ofin vitrodigestion, showingabout 24% and 34% hydroperoxides and TBA-RS concentration reductions, respectively, in P diet samples re-spect to the L ones. Thus, our study suggests that the appearance of phenolic metabolites in meat could beassociated to a reduction in the oxidative phenomena during meat cooking and digestion

Composizione acidica del tessuto adiposo di copertura e dei lipidi intramuscolari di suini macellati a differenti età

Fatty acid composition of both covering adipose tissue and intramuscular lipid fractions was studied in 60 half brother hybrid pigs, born in the range of 7 days and chosen from 10 litters. The subjects were divided into 3 groups of 20, balanced for sex and litter and were slaughtered at 178, 256 and 284 days of age. Except for intramuscular polar lipids, ageing (i.e. increasing live weight) was associated with increased lipid saturation