Effect of dietary fish meal on the palatability and fatty acid composition of pork

Authors

• Jarmo Valaja Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Kaija Suomi Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Timo Alaviuhkola Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Irma Immonen Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72426

Abstract

The effect of graded levels of dietary fish meal was studied with growing pigs in two trials. Test diets contained fish meal 0, 2.7, 6.5 and 13 % in trial 1 and 0, 2,5 and 10 % in trial 2. In trial 2, diets containing 5 or 10 % of fish meal were divided into four different treatments, where fish meal was withdrawn from the diet 7, 5, 3 or 0 weeks before slaughter. There were no significant differences in performance results between the treatments in trial 1. The contents of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids C22:5 and C22:6 in the pork fat were analyzed in both trials and they increased linearly with increasing level of fish meal in the diets (trial 1 and 2) (p<0.001) and with length of fish meal feeding period (trial2) (p<0.01). In organoleptic analyses of fresh meat samples there were no statistical differences between the treatments in trial 1. No off-flavours could be found from the fresh meat samples in trial 2. After a freezing period of 7 - 8 months, the off-flavour of the meat increased linearly with increasing content of fish meal in the diet in trial 1 (p<0.001). In trial 2, distinctness of off-flavours increased also with the level of fish meal and with the length of fish meal feeding period.