The Rural Voice, 2003-03, Page 28• • 1 1 1 1 4
Re'earchers are working to help
pork producers gain more of the
consumer's meat counter
purchases. • 1 1
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Designed to please
From food safety, to taste quality to new processing
techniques to animal welfare concerns, researchers at the
Centralia Swine Research Update tell of the pork industry's
latest efforts to please the consumer.
By Keith Roulston
Delivering what the consumer
wants, whether food safety,
uniformity of product or
animal -friendly production systems
was a major theme at the 22nd annual
Centralia Swine Research Update.
The emphasis on quality and food
safety began with the very first
speaker when Dr. Peter Purslow,
chair of the department of food
sciences at the University of Guelph
reviewed the work of some of the
research scientists working at the
university.
Dr. Purslow himself, with a
background working in Denmark and
Britain, concentrates on quality and
quality control. In Denmark, he says,
consumers take food safety for
granted so most research goes into
improving pork's quality and taste.
24 THE RURAL VOICE
Some of that research examines
the tenderness of pigs slaughtered in
a traditional manner versus a low -
stress system that takes pigs to their
final end in family groupings. The
low -stress system reduced drip Loss
by a half per cent which may not
seem like much, Purslow said, but
multiplied by 20 million pigs, it
represents a lot of money.
On the subject of tenderness,
researchers are looking at the
influence of strategic feeding to
improve tenderness as well as the
effect different fiber types in pork
muscles have on tenderness. At the
processing level, researchers are
working to develop an early
postmortem biosensor to predict
tenderness and exploring packaging
strategies to reduce variability in
tenderne\ and enhance
holding capacity in the meat.
Recent research at Guelph has
also looked at the nutraceutical
benefits of pork. Researchers know
that eating pork enhances iron uptake
in the human diet and are working to
identify the components of the meat
that make this possible.
On food safety, researchers in a
program headed by Dr. Keith
Warriner are looking into ways of
reducing contamination from farm to
fork. At the farm level, for instance,
researchers are trying to establish the
routes by which pathogens such as
Salmonella are introduced into pig
herds and to evaluate on-farm
strategies to minimize the initial
contamination of pig herds prior to
processing.
At the processor level, researchers
are working to develop effective
Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Point (HACCP) programs to
minimize or prevent cross
contamination and evaluate
intervention strategies such as
acid/hot water washes and steam
pasteurization.
Researchers under Dr. M. W.
Griffiths are working to find new,
faster ways to detect bacteria
contamination of meat during
processing.
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