Pore formation in cured–smoked pork determined with image analysis—effects of tumbling and RN− gene

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of RN genotype (rn+/rn+ or RN−/rn+) and tumbling condition (tumbled or non-tumbled) on the number of undesirable pore formation in cured–smoked loins using image analysis. Even when not significant, RN−/rn+ loins contained more pores than rn+/rn+ loins. Tumbling clearly decreased the total number of pores, but increased the mean area per pore. Tumbled rn+/rn+ loins contained half the number of pores compared with tumbled RN−/rn+ loins. Even if RN genotype and tumbling influenced the number of pores they did not explain the development of pores in processed meat. The high correlations found when comparing the image analysis results with data from a trained sensory panel and visually scored images indicate that image analysis is a good tool in this type of investigations.