Abstract

JEREZ-TIMAURE, Nancy et al. Detection of quality failures in pork carcass and meat using farm and plant audit. Rev. mex. de cienc. pecuarias [online]. 2013, vol.4, n.1, pp.13-30. ISSN 2448-6698.

Management before slaughtering is known to affect pork carcass and meat quality. The aims of this study were: a) to evaluate the animal handling and stunning practices, defects of pork carcass and meat quality, through conducting farm and plant audits; b) and to correlate them in order to establish corrective actions. Two hundred pigs were evaluated during 4 wk (50 pigs per week). The audits were applied at the farm (loading and transport) and during the slaughtering process (unloading, stunning, bleeding and scalding). Carcass traits such as pH and temperature (at 45 min and 24 h), water holding capacity, drip loss and color were evaluated. It was found that 46.5 % of the pigs were stunned incorrectly, and 53.0 % of the animals showed signs of sensible at sticking. Seven canonical correlations were obtained between two groups of canonical variables ("carcass" and" slaughter"); of those, the first two correlations explaining a variance between variables of 61.64 % (P<0.05). It was found that electrode position, blinking, vocalization, and righting reflex of head were highly correlated with canonical variables "carcass"; while, pH45min and pH24h showed the highest correlation with canonical variables "slaughter". It was found that the critical phase during the entire process was the stunning process, in which electrode position and blinking were highly associated with pork quality defects. The audit programs in meat processing plants are a helpful tool to detect failure in the production process.

Keywords : Pigs; Quality; Meat; Audit; Stunning; Animal welfare; Canonical correlation.

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