Differences in the electrophoretic patterns of soluble pork proteins as a consequence of pig rearing conditions.

In recent years the importance of 'organic meat' has increased. Rigorous rearing conditions has raised the emphasis on meat quality problems. Pigs (genotype: Hungarian Large White 75% and Mangalica, pigs with curly bristles, 25%) were kept in a natural farming system, and did not receive growth promoters, hormones or antibiotics. The meat of these pigs is called 'organic meat', or 'bio meat'. Longissimus dorsi muscles of pigs kept under natural circumstances and under traditional conditions were compared using SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing. Electrophoretic separation, protein and esterase enzyme staining showed definite differences between the proteolysates of organic and control meat samples. Copyright © 1995. Published by Elsevier Ltd.