Diet composition and slaughter age up to 24Â weeks have minimal impact on pork eating quality of loin steaks and silverside roasts from female pigs

Female crossbred pigs were randomly allocated at 16 weeks of age to one of three dietary treatments (A: corn and soybean meal; B: wheat and canola meal; C: wheat and sorghum) matched for digestible energy (13.6 MJ DE/kg) and total lysine (0.93-0.95%) and fed for 4, 5 or 8 weeks, respectively, prior to slaughter. Loin (M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum) and silverside (M. biceps femoris) were obtained from 20 pigs per dietary treatment group and prepared into steaks and roasts, respectively, for consumer evaluation with ageing treatments of 7 and 28 days post-slaughter allocated within muscle. Neither dietary treatment/age at slaughter nor ageing treatment influenced sensory traits of either cut. Intramuscular fat levels were also not influenced by dietary treatment. Higher (P < 0.001) fail rates for silverside roasts compared with loin steaks indicate that different interventions are needed at a cut level to optimise pork eating quality consistency and consumer expectations.