Differentiation of pork longissimus dorsi muscle regarding the variation in water holding capacity and correlated traits

This study was performed on 87 randomly selected carcasses of castrated pigs, slaughtered at approximately 100 kg live weight in 2 abattoirs from east Croatia. Important meat quality traits were measured on the samples of musculus longissimus dorsi: initial and ultimate pH values (pH(45) and pH(24)), meat colour and drip loss. Samples were further differentiated into 5 groups on the base of meat quality conditions. Results show that 14.66%, 32%, 40%, 10.67% and 2.66% of the longissimus dorsi muscles belonged to PSE, RSE, RFN, PFN and DFD conditions respectively. The highest correlations were observed between ultimate pH value, drip loss and meat colour. Interpolated threshold value for ultimate pH was 5.69. It is suggested to verify the values used for differentiation of meat according to quality on a larger sample.