In utero heat-stress has minimal impacts on processed pork products: A comparative study

Authors: XUE, SIWEN - Purdue University; PARK, JUN-YOUNG - Purdue University; TUELL, JACOB - Purdue University; Johnson, Jay; DINH, THU - Mississippi State University; KIM, Y.H.B. - Purdue University

Submitted to: Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/19/2022
Publication Date: 4/24/2022
Citation: Xue, S., Park, J., Tuell, J.R., Johnson, J.S., Dinh, T., Kim, Y. 2022. In utero heat-stress has minimal impacts on processed pork products: A comparative study. Foods. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11091222.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11091222

Interpretive Summary: Heat stress threatens the efficiency and sustainability of pork product consumption for human consumption. Specifically, heat stress during postnatal life adversely impacts meat quality and can reduce meat yield in swine. In addition, prenatal heat stress can result in reduced meat yield and greater meat toughness and quality potentially leading to a poorer consumer eating experience. However, it is currently unknown whether prenatal heat stress has an impact on processed pork products. Therefore, the study objective was to evaluate whether prenatal heat stress in pigs has an impact on the quality of processed pork products. Pork patties and emulsions were made from the carcasses of prenatally heat-stressed pigs and control pigs. The patties and emulsions were tested for textural properties, color attributes, fluid losses, and oxidative stability. It was determined that prenatal heat stress pork patties had improved color stability and increased lipid oxidation for lean patties. In addition, fatty acid composition analysis observed higher C20:1 versus C20:2 fatty acids in prenatal heat stress pig subcutaneous fat. However, despite the statistical differences observed, the functional properties of pork products from prenatal heat-stressed pigs remained unchanged when compared to control pigs.

Technical Abstract: The study objective was to evaluate whether in-utero heat stress (IUHS) in pigs has impacts on the quality of processed pork products. Pork patties and emulsions were made of IUHS and/or in-utero thermal-neutral (IUTN) pig lean and fat to compare textural properties, color attributes, fluid losses, and oxidative stability. For patties, IUHS had no impacts on texture properties, but patties with 25% additional fat maintained lower hardness, cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness (P<0.05) when compared to lean patties, which contain no extra fat. Neither in-utero condition nor fat content affected patty fluid losses (P<0.05). Generally, 25% fat patties had higher L*, a*, b*, hue angle and chroma values than lean patties (P<0.05), although 25% fat patties from IUHS maintained better color stability at the end of display. There was an increase in lipid oxidation in lean-patties from IUHS during display (P<0.05) but not for other treatments (P>0.05). Conversely, lipid oxidation along with other quality attributes of the emulsion was minimally affected by in-utero condition. Analysis of fatty acid compositions found higher C20:1 and C20:2 fatty acids in IUHS subcutaneous fat (P<0.05); however, the degree of the difference was unlikely to have significant impacts on product quality. Overall, IUHS had no major impacts on functional properties of raw meat ingredients (lean and fat) for manufacturing processed pork products.