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Chemical Composition of Backfat in 58 kg Pig Carcasses Covering a Wide Range of Fat Thickness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2017

M. Enser
Affiliation:
Agricultural and Food Research Council, Institute of Food Research Bristol Laboratory, Langford, Bristol BS18 7DY
J.D. Wood
Affiliation:
Agricultural and Food Research Council, Institute of Food Research Bristol Laboratory, Langford, Bristol BS18 7DY
C.B. Moncrieff
Affiliation:
Agricultural and Food Research Council, Institute of Food Research Bristol Laboratory, Langford, Bristol BS18 7DY
A.J. Kempster
Affiliation:
Meat and Livestock Commission, PO Box 44, Queenway House, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK2 2EF
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Extract

The chemical composition of pig backfat determines its physical properties of firmness and cohesiveness as well as its nutritional value. The firmness of the tissue depends upon its content of saturated fatty acids, particularly stearic, which make it harder; and unsaturated fatty acids, particularly linoleic, which make it softer. Cohesiveness depends upon the connective tissue and fat content and the compositon of these; soft fat and low cohesiveness frequently being found together. Nutritional value may be judged by the energy content of the tissue, which increases in proportion to its lipid content, or by the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids to saturated fatty acids (P:S ratio), used by COMA to indicate the desirability of the fat as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. There is evidence that as fatness has been reduced in British pigs, composition has changed with consequences for these characteristics.

Type
Manipulation of Composition and Quality of Animal Products
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1988

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