Dietary lecithin improves dressing percentage and decreases chewiness in the longissimus muscle in finisher gilts

Abstract

The influence of dietary lecithin at doses of 0, 4, 20 or 80. g/kg fed to finisher gilts for six weeks prior to slaughter on growth performance, carcass quality and pork quality was investigated. M. longissimus lumborum (loin) was removed from 36 pig carcasses at 24. h post-mortem for Warner-Bratzler shear force, compression, collagen content and colour analyses. Dietary lecithin increased dressing percentage (P = 0.009). Pork chewiness and collagen content were decreased by dietary lecithin (P . 0.05, respectively). Dietary lecithin reduced loin muscle L* values and increased a* values (P. <. 0.05, respectively) but no changes on b* values (P = 0.56). The data showed that dietary lecithin i..