Pig slaughtering and carcass and meat quality

Abstract

The competitiveness of pig slaughtering plants doesnot rely any longer essentially on cost decrease, butrather on their capacity to increase product quality.Operations on live animals are the step of the process where the highest progress margin can be expected. Improving the meat quality control implies to better understand the stress effects on quality. The available knowledge in this area explains only a part of these effects, so it is still necessary to increase it by focusing research particularly on the interactions between animal and technological factors. Generally speaking, it isnecessary to respect a time of 20 to 24 h between thelast feed and slaughter, to minimise stress by adaptingthe facilities taking into account the pig behavioural peculiarities, and to optimise stunning. Among theslaughter line operations following killing , chilling isthe most effective on meat quality.