Drip loss in pork: influencing factors and relation to further meat quality traits.

The paper deals with some general features of drip loss and the most important factors influencing it. Moreover, it shows some exemplary results of an own investigation. Up to now there is no generally valid definition of drip loss available. Therefore measurement procedures have to be strongly standardized, otherwise they provide no comparable results. Drip loss depends on the shortening of sarcomeres which is regulated by the interaction of muscle temperature and rigour development. Hence, the chilling conditions are highly important. However, the main point is the velocity and the extent of the pH fall after slaughter. All factors influencing the occurrence of quality deviations like PSE, DFD, Acid meat, RSE, PFN will inevitably affect the degree of drip loss too. Under the conditions of an own study, investigating material of a progeny testing station, untypically, one third of the loins with higher-than-average wateriness were red rather than pale, and one third of the loins with higher-than-average brightness were only slightly exudative, which is untypical too. Pork with higher-than-average brightness and low wateriness exhibited, apart from the colour deviation, no crucial disadvantages. It showed only a marginally higher loss during storage, thawing and heating. Pork with higher-than-average drip loss - regardless of dark or pale colour - was predominantly combined with a pH(1) less than 6.2, an electrical conductivity 24 h p.m. higher than 5.0 and a loin area higher than 56 cm(2).