The influence of giant fibres on utility for production of massaged products of porcine muscle longissimus dorsi

Musculus longissimus dorsi (L) originating from 6 genotype groups of pigs was examined. Three among these were parental lines: Pietrain (Pi), Duroc (D), Polish Large White × Polish Landrace (PLW × PL), the other three crossbreeds obtained by crossing the aforementioned parental lines: (PLW × PL) × Pi, (PLW × PL) × (Pi × D) and (PLW × PL) × (D × Pi). It was found that there exists a variety of numbers and sizes of giant fibres and sizes of muscle fibres in the L muscle of the groups of animals, which results in a diversity of quality and susceptibility to massaging. The largest number of giant fibres and the greatest sizes of normal and giant fibres, along with the largest losses after heat treatment, the highest hardness, shear force, the lowest juiciness and attractiveness were found in the L muscle of Pi. Muscle of this breed was characterised by the least change in quality indicators during massaging. The decrease of Pi breed genes in the crossbreed genotype, resulted in reduction in the quantity of giant fibres and fibre sizes in comparison with pure Pi breed, which increased quality of crossbreeds’ muscles and their susceptibility to massaging.