What is Next for the Eating Quality of U.S. Produced Pork?

At 50 pounds per capita, pork consumption in the U.S. lags the other two major animal protein competitors of beef and chicken for demand. However, the global consumption of pork still leads the animal protein complex with approximately 40% of the total. Production in the food animal model seems simple at P = µ + G + E, where P = phenotype, µ = the population mean, G = genotype and E = environment. As an industry and a scientific community, animal scientists have regularly sought to alter G and E to optimize the phenotypic outcome for pork production. By many measures, the pork industry has “moved” the bar dramatically in the past 50 years. Whether driven by consumer demand or by a competing protein, the pork industry placed selection pressure on the growth efficiency of pigs while decreasing the overall fatness of the pork carcass. Shifts in genetic endpoint have been aided by a much clearer understanding of amino acid requirements for protein accretion and by novel molecules that alter the partitioning of nutrients toward more muscle and less fat. To this end, the industry is producing more tons of pork on fewer farms that seek to decrease their physical footprint while increasing pigs weaned per sow and total pounds of pig weaned per sow per year. While the efficiency of U.S. pork production is rivaled by few globally, the conversation about the eating quality of U.S. produced pork is and has been a regular topic of interest over this same 50 year period. The question that many wrestle with is “How do we balance cheap animal protein expectations with an acceptable eating quality experience?”. In the minds of many, the answer is that these two factors cannot coexist. In the present, the conversation about moving the needle on pork quality is alive and real. The U.S.D.A is collecting comment on a revised pork grading system that will have relevance to today’s production system. The National Pork Board is considering updates to the pork color evaluation standards. Niche marketers are extolling the virtue of greater marbling and improved color using heritage breeding influence in varied pork production systems. If the U.S. pork industry has selected the eating quality out of pork and the consumer, domestic or international, is truly demanding an improved eating experience, then is seems logical to focus the effort on a collection of management and technological adoptions to meet this demand. Regardless of the direction, any effort that will move an entire industry will require partnerships between the pork industry and the scientific community and the subsequent changes will need to pass muster with an ever-challenging social environment.