Threshold for incorporation of cardiovasculary favourable fatty acids in pork tissue : implications for meat and meat products

Abstract

Pork has always been blamed to be too rich in (saturated) fat and consequently as being an unhealthy food. However, pork contains actually lesser fat, a considerable amount of cardiovasculary neutral monosaturated fatty acids and the level of polyunsaturated (possibly omega-3) fatty acids (PUFA) can be easily increased by the feed (Koch et al. 1968). The question raises what will happen with the (sensory) quality of pork rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids as these may induce poor consistency of backfat, yellow discolorations of the fat and off-flavours in meat (products) due to rancidity. Hence the objective of this study was to investigate the PUFA threshold for PUFA incorporations in pig tissue. According to Fischer et al. (1991) PUFA may vary from 15 to 21 g PUFA/kg feed, depending on the use of the pork (resp. cured and fresh meat). Houben and Krol (1983) and Wood (1983) recommend max. 15% PUFA in backfat.