Boîte à outils pour l'évaluation des qualités des carcasses et des dimensions sensorielles, nutritionnelles et technologiques des viandes et produits transformés de porc - Application aux produits issus de races locales

The quality of pig carcasses, meat and pork products is reflected by different dimensions: economic (commercial value), technological (processing ability), sensory (appearance, texture, flavour, etc.) and nutritional (nutrient supply meeting human nutritional requirements). Each of these dimensions is described by several indicators, evaluated by different methods (physical, biochemical, etc.). One objective of the TREASURE project was to characterise the intrinsic quality of traditional pork products from diverse European local pig breeds and production systems. To harmonise the evaluation of quality within the project, a single tool based on common indicators and methods for quality assessment was developed. A "toolbox" for quality was established considering, for each main product (carcass, subcutaneous fat, fresh loin, green ham, dry ham, other dry products), the main quality dimensions (economic, technological, sensory, nutritional, etc.) and within each, the individual indicators (e.g. backfat thickness, intramuscular fat content, TBARs level, pH 24 h, colour parameters (L* a* b*), sensory tenderness, processing yield, NaCl content, etc. leading to a total of about 80 indicators) along with assessment of the method. The inventory of quality dimensions and indicators was drawn from our expertise, the scientific literature, and the Animal Trait Ontology for Livestock (ATOL) database. Measurement methods were chosen based on our expertise and the literature, including a recent “Handbook of reference methods for meat quality assessment” produced within the FAIM COST action. This “Pork Quality” toolbox is a generic tool that can help stakeholders from a variety of pork chains evaluate the quality of pork and pork products.