Quality characteristics of fresh meat from pigs of the Gascon breed

Abstract

Chemical parameters involved in the technological meat quality for dry cured processing of Gascon pigs were studied in longissimus dorsi (LD) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles. Muscles from Gascon pigs showed 2.60% and 2.84% of intramuscular fat content, 23.64% and 22.14% protein content and 1.34 and 4.63 mg of myoglobin g-1 muscle (respectively LD and BF). These values are in between those of Iberian pigs and of commercial pigs. A similar situation was detected in the fatty acid composition of neutral and polar lipids of both muscles, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in neutral lipids being respectively 58.27% and 51.98%, while polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) levels were 5.61% and 14.13% respectively. These values are close to those previously found in Iberian pigs fed on acorns, and are higher than in commercial pigs. The same trend was found in polar lipids. Both muscles showed a low susceptibility to induced lipid oxidation, agreeing with their fatty acid composition. These results point out that meat from pigs of the Gascon breed shows optimal characteristics for dry cured processing, similar to those from animals of the Iberian breed.