Sensory Characteristics of Berkshire Crossbreds Sired By Heritage Breeds

The objective of this study was to evaluate the sensory characteristics of Berkshire crossbreds sired by heritage breeds. The experiments were conducted at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University farm located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Berkshire sows were artificially inseminated with semen from Berkshire (BB) and Hereford (HB) boars. Piglets were farrowed outdoors and were housed in a deep-bedded hoop structure after weaning at 4 weeks of age. The boars were not castrated, and the piglets were given standard NRC feed and water ad libitum. Animals were randomly selected and harvested at an USDA inspected abattoir at approximately 200 days of age. Loins were removed from one side of 14 BB and 10 HB pigs after harvest, and were packed in ice and transported to the NCSU Food Science for sensory panel testing. Samples of loin chops from BB and HB female and male pigs were presented to 101 panelists. The panelists evaluated the overall liking, as well as the overall flavor, freshness, texture and meaty flavor likings for each of the four samples on a 9-point hedonic scale where 1 = dislike extremely and 9 = like extremely. They also evaluated the texture, moisture and meaty flavor of the samples on a 5-point JAR scale where 1 or 2 = too little, 3 = just about right, and 4 or 5 = too much. The responses were analyzed with PROC GLM in SAS 9.3. Breed and sex were included as fixed effects. Interaction between breed and sex was not included because it wasn’t statistically significant (p>0.05). The difference between the breeds, as well as the sexes, were not significant for the overall, overall flavor, freshness, and meaty flavor likings (p>0.05). There was a significant difference between both breeds and sexes for the texture liking (p<0.05). Berkshire sired pigs and females scored higher than HB and males, respectively. However, when the panelists were asked to evaluate the texture of the loin chops on a 5-point JAR scale, they could not tell the difference between the samples. Boar taint did not affect the sensory characteristics of pork from pigs reared outdoors. Even though there was a statistical difference in the texture liking of the samples from different sexes, the difference was not observed when the range of the evaluation scale was reduced. However, BB and females received higher scores for purchase intent than HB and males, respectively (p<0.05).