INSTRUMENTAL AND SENSORIC CRITERIA OF MEAT QUALITY IN COMMERCIAL PIG CROSSES

1036 pigs from 6 crossbred products common on the northwestern markets were fattened on one farm in two periods and slaughtered at two diffe rent slaughter houses with FOM grading. On 745 carcasses pH and conduc tivity were measured 24 hrs. p.m. in loin and ham, and from 288 carcas ses (48 of each product) intramuscular fat content was analyzed and su bjective ranking scores for tenderness, juiciness and taste were given by a taste panel of 6 untrained kitchen experts. Maximum differences between crosses in lean production performance were 36 g net gain, 1 % FOM-lean content and 1. 68 kg lean cuts (ham and loin). Much greater were the differences in instrumentally measured meat quality character istics. The best discriminating criteria were pH1 (45 min. p. m., loin ) and conductivity (24 hrs. p.m. in ham or loin). Intramuscular fat co ntent ranged between products from 1.8-2.6% and between gilts and barr ows from 1.9-2.2%. Sensoric meat quality was measured with ranking sco res from 1 to 6 for tenderness, juciness and taste separately. The for mer two showed highly significant differences between crosses the latt er did not. High correlations were found between tenderness and juicin ess, both were intermediately correlated to taste scores. All three tr aits showed only low correlations to intramuscular fat content. Higher correlations to sensoric meat quality scores were found for conductiv ity 24 hrs. p.m. pH1 as well as FOM-lean content and muscle thickness (with antagonistic sign) were similarly correlated with sensoric meat quality as intramuscular fat content. From the results it was conclude d that in present crossbred products sensoric meat quality is determin ed by several instrumentally measurable meat quality and lean content criteria.