Using pork to teach students quality variations and how they are quality variations measured

Using a total of eight pork loins representing DFD (dark, firm, and dry) an d PSE (pale, soft, and exudative) conditions, 35 students conducted a serie s of objective and subjective measurements to demonstrate extremes in meat quality in a single 2-h laboratory. Students learned to objectively assess appearance, water-holding and water-binding capacity, ultimate pH (pH(u)), and shear force (cooked samples) by operating seven commonly known laborato ry instruments. They also learned how to prepare and present samples for or ganoleptic analysis using hedonic and triangle tests. Finally, the students learned the factors related to meat quality and how extremely they can var y. Within one laboratory, they observed that DFD, when compared with PSE, a veraged 1.5 units higher in pH(u), 4.7% (absolute) less drip loss, bound 13 6% (absolute) more water, was darker in color (26 units lower L* value), wa s firmer with a more attractive structure requiring 1 kg/cm less force to s hear, and was superior in organoleptic properties (overall 21% more desirab le). Having 35 replicates to use for the data set, the results illustrated statistically significant variations in meat-quality traits and how they co uld be objectively measured. Nine months later, 12 of the students were sur veyed. It was their perception that the laboratory was not any more effecti ve than other laboratories in the same class, but they were able to remembe r 85% of the methods used to measure quality; about twice that of other met hods taught in other laboratory sessions.