Quality comparison of pork loin and belly from three-way crossbred pigs during postmortem storage

This study was performed to determine the meat quality characteristics of pork loin and belly from 3 different three-way crossbred pigs: Yorkshire × Landrace × Duroc (YLD), Yorkshire × Chester White × Yorkshire (YCY), and Yorkshire × Berkshire × Duroc (YBD). Each of the twenty crossed pigs were randomly selected with their live weights at the range of 110-120 kg. After being slaughtered and cooled at 0°C for 24 h in a chilling room, the parts of loin and belly on the left side of the cooled carcasses were cut and prepared for analysis. The intramuscular fat contents of the loins from YLD were higher than those of the other crossbreds (p<0.05), and the YCY bellies had the highest moisture contents (p<0.05). Water holding capacity (WHC) of the loins from YCY were higher than the other crossbreds (p<0.05). Shear force values of the YBD loins were higher than the others (p<0.05). The TBARS values of YCY loins were significantly lower than the others at 0 d, but the difference disappeared after 14 d of storage. Sensory scores of YLD were ranked higher than the YCY or YBD in both the loins and bellies (p<0.05). The relatively high sensory values of YLD crossbred pork could be explained by the better WHC, the low shear forces, and the higher fat contents. The results indicated that the meat qualities could be altered by three-way crossbreeding.