Incidence of pale, soft and exudative (PSE) pork meat in reason of extrinsic stress factors.

The incidence of PSE (pale, soft and exudative) pork meat is directly influenced by pre-slaughter handling of animals, compromising meat quality and resulting in economic losses for industry. Considering management, the main extrinsic stress factors are: the pre-slaughter rest time in lairage, the total fasting time and at farm and the transport time. To evaluate the effects of these factors on PSE meat incidence, pH of 1038 carcasses was measured at 45 minutes post mortem (pH45) in a pig slaughterhouse in Paraná, Brazil. Carcasses with pH45≤5.8 were classified as PSE, and those with pH45>5.8 as normal. In order to verify if the factors influence PSE meat appearance, it was divided into categories according to it duration, and according to the number of animals evaluated in each category, the PSE meat frequency was estimated, and which time intervals obtained the lower incidence of the change. The total incidence of PSE carcasses was 19.17%. The periods of rest in lairage, total fasting, fasting at farm and transport that minimized the occurrence of PSE meat were from 04h01 to seven hours, from 14h01 to 17h00, from 03h01 to five hours, and from 02h01 to three hours, respectively.