The influence of early post-mortem enhancement and accelerated chilling on pork quality.

To improve pork quality, the effectiveness of early post-mortem enhancement and accelerated chilling were investigated. The four treatments evaluated were: Enhancement with Accelerated Chilling (ENAC), Accelerated Chilling Only (ACO), Enhancement with Conventional Chilling (ENCC), and Conventional Chilling Only (CCO). ENAC had a higher (P<0.05) pH than all other treatments. CCO resulted in the highest (lightest; P<0.05) L(∗), while ENAC had the lowest L(∗) value (darkest; P<0.05). Subjective color and striping did not differ (P>0.05) between ENAC and ENCC, although ENAC was numerically higher for both parameters. Sensory analysis for juiciness and tenderness were not different (P>0.05) between ENAC and ENCC, but both were higher (P<0.05) than ACO and CCO. Enhancement early post-mortem coupled with accelerated chilling may be used to improve instrumental color and pH over conventional processing methods.