INVESTIGATION OF TAINT IN PORK.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 41, Issue 1, 21 July 1930, Page 53

INVESTIGATION OF TAINT IN PORK.

An interim report by Mr. C. R. Barnicoat, of the Dominion Laboratory, on the current investigation into taint sometimes found of late in New Zealand frozen pork, is ' published in the June issue of the N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. It will be recalled that the matter arose through complaints from British buyers, who described the taint as a “ fishy ” or “ reasty ” odour, which developed after thawing of the meat. The trouble was attributed here, in general, firstly to defective feeding of pigs, and secondly to faulty freezing and storage of carcasses. The report summarizes the indications of the experiments carried out as follows : . - .' (1) Certain meals which have been made by the rendering of certain animal or fish offals appear, when given with buttermilk, to exert a predisposing influence to taint upon the fat of pigs fed on them. : i' (2) It is doubtful whether the same meals fed with a concentrate (e.g., barley) have this undesirable effect on the fat of those animals to which they have been fed. (3) Sides of pork from pigs fed on various diets, when frozen for three months under somewhat fluctuating air-temperature conditions which would allow -of . slight variations in carcass-temperatures, were, on careful thawing, free of taint.' (4) These sides cured satisfactorily, and the freezing had in no way developed taint in the carcass. (5) Carcasses submitted to very extreme fluctuating temperature conditions while in the frozen state rapidly became putrid-smelling in the flesh, rancid in the fat, and developed an unsightly, perished appearance. Lord and Richter (Als. Milch-Fleich Hygeine, 1929, xl, 15 Oct.) point out that fat-rich fish-meals can be used fairly freely for feeding pigs for ; consumption as pork, but that a warning is necessary against the feeding of such meals to pigs intended for the manufacture of bacon. The local experiments have in every way confirmed these observations in so far that the various experimental feeds have not produced any sign of tallowy taint at the pork stage (even after freezing). It has always been after curing that. the trouble has become apparent, except when the carcasses were purposely submitted to fluctuating temperatures in order to produce defective fat and meat, as described in Part I of this report.