Relationship between glycolytic potential and technological quality of meat and dry-cured Parma ham in the italian heavy pig

The glycolytic potential (GP) was determined at 1 hour post mortem on Biceps femoris (BF)muscle collected from the carcasses of 158 commercial hybrid pigs and 349 Duroc x (Landrace x Large White) crossbreeds. The pH and pHu values were measured in the Biceps femoris (BF), semimembranosus (SM), and Longissimus thoracis (LT) muscles. Drip and cooking losses were evaluated on the LT muscle. The technological losses during the first salting phase and at the end of curing were calculated in hams processed as dry-cured Parma ham. The glycolytic potential averaged 128.6 μmol/g in commercial hybridpigs and 138.9 μmol/g in crossbreeds. The percentage of carcasses with a GP value exceeding 180 μmol/g, considered as threshold value for identifying carriers of the RN- allele of the RN gene, were 1.9% and 9.8%, respectively. The correlation coefficients between pHu and GP were between -0.22 and -0.44 (P<0.01) while the coefficients between the GP and the losses due to first salting and curing varied between +0.22 and+0.39 (P<0.01). On the whole, the results obtained point to the need to check the meat glycolytic potential in Italian heavy pig since an increase could have a negative influence on the production of Parma ham due to increase in weight loss during the curing process.