Influence of dietary oils and protein level on pork quality. 1. Effects on muscle fatty acid composition, carcass, meat and eating quality

This study evaluated the effects of three dietary oils – palm kernel (PKO), palm (PO) and soyabean (SBO) – and two protein levels – high (HP) and low (LP) in a 3 × 2 factorial design involving 60 pigs on growth performance, muscle fatty acid composition and content, carcass, meat and eating qualities. Oil type did not have a significant effect on growth and carcass quality. PKO significantly reduced the polyunsaturated (PUFA) to saturated (SFA) fatty acid (P:S) ratio in longissimus muscle (P < 0.001). PKO increased the concentrations of lauric (12:0), myristic (14:0), palmitic (16:0) and stearic (18:0) fatty acids and decreased linoleic acid (18:2). The LP diet increased intramuscular fat (IMF) from 1.7 g/100 g muscle in HP to 2.9 g/100 g (P < 0.001), increased tenderness by 0.6 units (P < 0.01) and juiciness by 0.5 units (P < 0.01) on the 1–8 scale, but at the expense of lower daily weight gain (P < 0.01), lower feed conversion efficiency (P < 0.01), reduced P:S ratio (P < 0.001) and increased lipid oxidation (P < 0.01). The results suggest that PKO and PO could be used in tropical developing countries as cheaper alternatives to SBO for the production of good quality and healthy pork, but their limits of inclusion need to be determined.