Nutrient Data on Pork Updated

By Rosalie Marion Bliss
June 26, 2006

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has launched a database that lists newly analyzed nutrient data for nine cuts of raw and cooked fresh pork.

The new data show significant changes in nutrient content of some of the pork cuts over time. Eight of the nine raw cuts were found to be leaner than those previously analyzed, while protein content remained unchanged.

The resource provides public and private researchers, health professionals and policy makers with key information for establishing nutritional recommendations concerning pork’s role in a healthful diet. It will also be used as the basis for nutrition labeling of pork products in the future.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.

The nutrient analyses and evaluation were collaborative efforts by scientists at the ARS Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC; University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Maryland-College Park; and the Des Moines, Iowa-based National Pork Board (NPB). The database was produced by lead nutritionist Juliette C. Howe and visiting scientist Juhi Williams, both with the BHNRC’s Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL), also in Beltsville. The research was funded in part by the NPB.

Researchers collected samples of nine common cuts of fresh pork from retail stores in a dozen different markets around the country, as outlined in USDA’s National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program sampling plan. Using the same methods for trimming and sample preparation as in past analyses of pork products, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other sites then analyzed the cuts of pork for total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, vitamins and minerals.

The findings provide researchers with updated nutrient profiles for a variety of fresh pork cuts for the first time since 1991. The new pork nutrient values will also be added to the flagship USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (SR)--which is managed by the Nutrient Data Laboratory--in 2007.

“The Revised USDA Nutrient Data Set for Fresh Pork” is available to view online from the NDL website. The database will come up as a PDF file, which can be studied online or printed.