000457 Pork Quality Featured at World Pork Expo

Indianapolis - To better serve consumers, the U.S. pork industry is investing producer checkoff dollars into research to learn more about the eating quality traits of pork. PORK 101 will feature quality trait research results during World Pork Expo on June 8-10 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

“PORK 101 will help demonstrate quality traits at different stages of the production chain, from the pig, the packer and to the end products,” according to David Meisinger, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President of Pork Quality for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). “Pork producers may have heard about these quality traits or measuring tools, yet not had the opportunity to see them first-hand,” he says.

“The benefit of PORK 101 and other checkoff-funded programs like it is it provides ways that producers can better meet customer needs which, in turn, creates greater demand and use of our product,” said John Kellogg, a Yorkville, Ill., producer and National Pork Board President.

The exhibit, located in the Pepsi Coliseum, will feature live hogs with ultrasound measurements provided. Selected littermates of the live hogs will be processed and viewed in carcass form in a refrigerated trailer. Meatcases will have examples of pork possessing different quality traits based on leanness, juiciness and color. Also displayed will be examples of pork cuts with commonly occurring defects. Producers will also be able to see some of the equipment measuring quality traits for color, tenderness, pH and fat.

Information and explanations will be available on packer buying programs. Also featured will be the revised checkoff-funded Standardized Fat-Free Lean Index. The equations allow producers to compare information provided on their carcass information sheets with industry averages. Data for the new equations was collected last year from pigs in the Quality Lean Growth Modeling Program.

Participants at PORK 101 can also learn more about pork quality standards for color and marbling. A taste test will take place about every two hours, allowing attendees to learn more about eating quality traits.

PORK 101 is based on a checkoff-funded short course conducted by NPPC and the American Meat Science Association. World Pork Expo is a presentation of the National Pork Board and implemented by the National Pork Producers Council.

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