[Studies on muscle-meat quality in swine. 1. Incidence of poor quality as well as influence of slaughtering and refrigeration].

The pork quality of M. longissimus dorsi of 1,010 pigs for slaughter in one pork production unit was determined on 17 slaughter days. Measurements taken for that purpose included pH 45 minutes post mortem, pork brightness 24 hours post mortem, and drip loss 24 hours post mortem. The following results were recorded: 1. Quality gaps in terms of PSE pork were recorded from 21.9 per cent of the pork samples stored under cold store conditions. 2. The percentage of cutlet pieces was reduced considerably (10.9 per cent) by shock cooling (-10 degrees C to -18 degrees C over 1.5 to 2.5 hours). This shows the importance of cooling. 3. The differences recorded between mean values were attributable mainly to nonsystematised environmental conditions, with such variation having been effective not only on the day of slaughter. 4. Close correlations were found to exist between drip loss and pH-value as well as between drip loss and pork brightness, while the relationships were less close between pH-value and brightness.