Pig meat-health: a possible binomial?

Meat and meat products are important sources of essential nutrients for humans, but recent epidemiological studies have associated red meat and processed meat consumption with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer due to saturated fatty acids, added salt, oxidative products, N-Nitroso compounds that develop during processing steps, and oxidative capacity of HEME-Iron. Moreover, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has recently defined red meat as probably carcinogenic and cured meat as carcinogenic. This has created considerable alarm among consumers, a significant reduction in consumption of these products and a remarkable negative impact on the market. Europe, with about 150 million of pigs and a yearly production of about 22 million tons carcass weight, is the second biggest producer of pork in the world, and the Mediterranean area of Europe is known around the world for the high quality of processed pig meat products. Therefore, it seems very important to develop new strategies of production and processing that can improve the healthful features of pork and derived products. The paper focuses on some of these strategies.