Marbling In Pork

The best available evidence indicates marbling level is determined by genetics chronological age and or physiological maturity plane of nutrition duration of feeding high energy diets and undoubtedly other less well defined factors.

Marbling in pork.

In the culinary arts the word marbling refers to white flecks and streaks of fat within the lean sections of meat. In the united states pork marbling is classified by professional inspectors into 7 grades table 1 according to the marbling stan dards of the natl. Pork producers council nppc which depict intramuscular fat imf content and. Intramuscular fat is usually quantitated chemically while marbling is usually visually assessed subjectively.

These studies evaluated whether consumers detect differences among pork loin chops with low 1 05 fat medium 2 33 and high 3 46 amounts of marbling when visually evaluated when prepared under controlled. Marbling is among the factors of age color and firmness that is presently receiving attention as a possible candidate which might be responsible for a higher quality pork. It impacts the tenderness moistness and overall flavor and has become one of the most well known elements of steak evaluation. Also called intramuscular fat marbling adds flavor and is one of the main criteria for judging the quality of cuts of meat.

Meat research groups actively engaged in the investigation of this con. Marbling is a visual meat characteristic defined as white particles visible on the cross section of the muscle albrech et al 1996 garcia et al 1968 essen gustavson et al 1994. Marbling is the intermingling of fat with lean in a muscle and therefore is intramuscular fat deposited around or between fascial or muscle fiber bundles. Marbling is so named because the streaks of fat resemble a marble pattern.

However compared to beef marbling in pork is much more variable and provides a low color contrast against the lean muscle which make its assessment more difficult faucitano and others 2005.