Effect of dietary vitamin E and vitamin C supplementation on meat quality of hybrid heavy pigs

The effect of feeding vitamins E (a-tocopheryl acetate) and C (ascorbic acid) on pork quality was investigated. Sixty commercial hybrid pigs, from about 90 kg l.w. to slaughter (around 160 kg l.w.), were fed a cereal-soybean meal based diet containing either 20 (C) or 500 (T1) mg vitamin E/kg or 500 mg vitamin E plus, in the last 7 days before slaughtering, 500 mg vitamin C/kg (T2). Daily dietary supplementation of 500 mg vitamin E/kg diet for 93 days increased (P£0.01) muscle a-tocopherol level, reduced (P£0.05) TBARS content and weight loss during dark refrigerated storage at 4°C for 7 days p.m. and seems able to ameliorate colour when meat tends to be PSE. Vitamin C, fed for a short period, did not affect the parameters studied.