Sire-feed interactions for fattening performance and meat quality traits in growing-finishing pigs under a conventional and an organic feeding regimen.

In a two-factorial feeding trial 120 growing-finishing pigs from eleven sires were fed on an organic (ORG) or a conventional (CON) diet. Diet ORG contained mainly oil press cakes and legume grains as protein source containing higher protein and crude fiber content along with slight deficiencies of limiting amino acids. Pigs were allocated to treatments balanced according to litter, sex and initial weight.

Prediction of pork quality at the slaughter line using a portable Raman device.

Raman spectroscopy is providing a fingerprint of the early postmortem metabolism in meat. In this study, for the first time, Raman spectroscopy is shown to measure and predict quality traits of intact muscles at the slaughtering process. Porcine semimembranosus muscles (N=151) were measured 30-60 min post mortem at the veterinarian line of a commercial abattoir using a prototype handheld Raman device.

The effects of early post-mortem pH and ultimate pH on level and amount of destructured zones in cooked cured hams.

Effects of early (1h p.m. and 3h p.

Variability of selected trace elements of different meat cuts determined by ICP-MS and DRC-ICPMS.

The aim of this study was to determine the levels of cadmium, lead, iron, zinc, selenium, manganese, copper and molybdenum in different cuts of beef, pork, lamb, chicken and foal collected from supermarkets and butcheries in Switzerland. The concentrations of manganese, copper, molybdenum, zinc, iron, selenium, cadmium and lead were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after microwave digestion. Mean values and their respective coefficients of variation were calculated from the measured concentrations.

The influence of cooking and fat trimming on the actual nutrient intake from meat.

The effects of cooking and trimming of visible fatty tissue on the content of fat, fatty acids, minerals and vitamins was studied in six meat cuts (beef rib-eye and brisket, pork neck steak and belly, veal chop and rolled breast) in order to improve the estimates of the actual nutrient intake from meat. Cooking decreased the absolute fat content by about 17.9-44.