Pork Makeover: New Push for Dark Meat
By
Sara
Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
Pork is getting a makeover as producers look to
make the meat a little darker, an indicator of
higher quality.
In 1987, the pork industry launched a campaign
that ingrained the "whiteness" of pork
in the heads of consumers. This push sprang from
the perception that chicken and turkey were leaner
choices than beef, lamb and pork. Since then,
researchers worked hard to bring pork up to par
and make it the leanest meat it could be.
Now, Ken Prusa, a professor of food science and
human nutrition from Iowa State University, is
convinced that pork is finally lean enough and
consumers need to look at other characteristics
when picking the right cut for dinner.
Pork pH
"I was doing research in a
meat-packing plant and noticed that the Japanese
export buyers always chose the darker pork,"
Prusa said. "I wanted to find out why, so
I evaluated some darker products."
Color, Prusa found through various industry-funded
studies, is an indicator of pH in pork, a measure
of acidity or alkalinity. A pH of 1 is considered
very acidic and a pH of 10 is very alkaline.
Dark-colored pork has a higher pH and so is less
acidic than lighter-colored cuts. Acid damages
muscle proteins and causes meat to be watery and
light in color.
"Through sensory testing, we found pH to
be a pretty strong driver of ultimate pork quality,"
Prusa said. "Higher pH products are more
tender, juicy and flavorful."
Pork loin, for example, has an average pH of 5.7,
whereas the higher quality pork tenderloin averages
around 6.1 to 6.2 in pH, Prusa told LiveScience.
Relax, Porky
Keeping the animals relaxed before
slaughter is one way to drive up the pH. Stress
causes elevated adrenaline levels in the body,
which then drop the pH levels in the animal.
Another factor may be temperature.
"Chilling is a big factor in processing,"
Prusa said. "It's critical to lower the temperature
of the carcass fairly rapidly. Otherwise, the
pH may drop too low before chilling can stabilize
it."
With such methods, producers may be able to adjust
the pH by a tenth, which Prusa says is quite significant.
"People can see the difference," he
said. "Once they taste it, the better quality
is obvious."
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