The influence of diets supplemented with conjugated linoleic acid, selenium, and vitamin E, with or without animal protein, on the quality of pork from female pigs.

Pork from the LM and semimembranosus muscle (SM) of 59 female Duroc-cross pigs with a mean carcass weight of 80.1 kg (SD = 3.2) were assessed for quality. The pigs were grown on diets containing either animal and plant products (the animal group) or plant products only (the plant group), with or without a supplement (0.31% of the diet) containing extra CLA, selenium, and vitamin E. The 45-min postmortem pH of LM was unaffected by dietary treatment (mean 6.44, SD = 0.21), but the ultimate pH (pHu) was lower for the supplemented animal group for both muscles within the animal group (P < 0.04). Water-holding capacity in terms of drip loss for SM and expressed juice levels for LM, but not cooking loss, was also lower for the supplemented animal group (P < 0.01), but this difference was reduced after adjustment to a constant pHu (P < 0.07). Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) values were greater for the plant group for LM only (P < 0.05), both before and after pHu adjustment. Differences between dietary treatment groups for color (L*, a*, and b*) were small and seldom significant before or after pHu adjustment. Sensory assessment of LM samples (with 5% subcutaneous fat added) from 32 pigs (8 per group) for 8 odor notes and 11 flavor notes by a trained analytical sensory panel of 13 people revealed no differences between the groups, except that the percentage of instances in which a rancid odor was detected was greater for the supplemented plant group compared with the control plant group (25 vs. 12%). Differences (P < 0.001) were shown between the muscles such that, relative to SM, LM had lower pHu values, greater drip losses, greater WBSF values, greater L* values, and lower chroma values, but similar levels of cooking loss. It is concluded that the dietary treatments imposed to improve the nutritional value of pork had some effects on certain meat quality parameters, but that the overall effects on appearance and palatability were small and unlikely to be of practical importance.