Nutritional Manipulation of Pork Quality: Current Opportunities

meets market demands? What are market demands? Previous demands for leaner meat have driven the reduction of fat in pork and consumer demand for “normal” pork has driven selection of pigs without the halothane gene and now the RN gene. Current demands are for “normal” pork to meet domestic and export consumption and to meet specialized markets (ex. darker-firmer pork, highly marbled pork or organic pork). Markets drive demand and demand is the impetus for change but opportunities for change may not always be easily identified or implemented and may require integrated industry approaches. Quality pork is the combined result of genetics, nutrition, production management, transportation, slaughter, processing and retailing practices, and each share responsibility in the quality of the final product. Most nutritional manipulations will, therefore, not be magic bullets that lead to complete resolution of pork quality defects or unfettered production of “enhanced” quality pork. With the understanding that certain risks are involved in achieving desired outcomes for nutritional manipulations, there are a number of promising nutrients that have been shown to positively affect pork quality. The subject of nutritional manipulation of meat quality has recently been reviewed (ex. Pethick et al. 1997, Pettigrew and Esnaola 2001, Rosenvold and Anderson 2003) and a factsheet on the subject has been published by the National Pork Producers Council (Ellis and McKeith 1999;