Physicochemical traits, fatty acid and free amino acid compositions of two-way crossbred pork belly

This study was conducted to determine the meat quality characteristics of pork belly from 3 different two-way crossbreeds of Yorkshire×Landrace (YL), Yorkshire×Berkshire (YB), and Yorkshire×Chester White (YC), which were domesticated for Korean consumers. Twenty pigs from each crossbreed (total n=60) were randomly selected when they reached the 110-120 kg range of market weight, slaughtered, and cooled at 0°C for 24 h. The pork bellies on the left side of the cooled carcasses were then sampled and analyzed. The pH of pork bellies was the lowest in YC among the crossbreds. There was no significant difference in fat content by crossbred, but YB bellies had the lowest moisture content (p<0.05). The cooking loss of YB bellies was lower than those of others (p<0.05). The TBARS values in YB was significantly higher than those of the others at 14 d. YL bellies had a higher percentage of stearic acid, oleic acid, and MUFA than the other breeds, while YB and YC had a higher percentage of myristic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, and n-6 fatty acids than the YB (p<0.05). PUFA content and P/S were significantly higher in YC compared with YL. Except for arginine, the concentrations of most free amino acids were higher in YB bellies than in others, (p<0.05). Sensory evaluation scores of bellies were higher for YC than for other breeds (p<0.05).