Dietary vitamin E and verbascoside mixture: effect on quality of longissimus dorsi muscle from 135 kg LW pigs

Medium-heavy swine slaughter at 135 kg live weight represents an alternative for the Italian heavy pig farming in which animal were slaughter at 160 kg of live weight. Medium-weight pigs are suitable for fresh meat consumption. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of dietary verbascoside and vitamin E mixture on physical, chemical and sensory parameters of Longissimus Dorsi muscle in pigs slaughter at 135 kg of live weight (LW). One hundred and fifty pigs, half castrated males and half females, were assigned to two experimental groups: the first group were fed a commercial diet and the second one the same diet with the addition of antioxidant mixture (Vitamin E and verbascoside). Pigs were fed on the basis of 9% of metabolic weight (LW0.75). The antioxidant mixture was administered to pigs 38 days before slaughter in daily amounts of 150 mg of Vitamin E and 15 mg of verbascoside from Verbenacea extract. At 135 kg of LW pig were slaughter in a commercial slaughterhouse (Pro Sus, s.c.a., Vescovato, Cremona, Italy). Twenty pigs per treatments (10 castrated males and 10 females) were randomly selected and the left LD muscles were sampled. Physical, chemical and sensory parameters were evaluated. Oxidative stability was assessed by TBARS during 8 days of refrigerated storage at 4°C. Sex and dietary treatment did not affect physical and chemical parameters of LD muscle. The values of intramuscular fat is higher than those reported for light pig (Corino et al., 2009), probably due to the pig genetic type and higher slaughter weight. It is near to that expected for heavy pigs (Corino et al., 2002). Dietary treatment positively influenced oxidative stability in LD from pig fed antioxidant mixture than controls during refrigerated storage (P<0.01), according with Lahucky et al., (2010). Sensory characteristics were unaffected by sex and dietary treatment. The results of the present study suggested that dietary antioxidant mixture containing verbascoside is an effective antioxidant in LD muscle, enhancing oxidative status without affect other meat quality parameters.