CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MEAT FROM THE PULAWSKA BREED PIGS, DEPENDING ON THEIR SLAUGHTER WEIGHT

Meat, including pork, is a source of nutritious proteins, fat and other ingredients required in the human diet. Currently, breeding and feeding works are carried out to obtain a product of the desired quality. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of the slaughter weight of pigs on the content of basic and mineral ingredients and the fatty acid profile in the longissimus lumborum and semimembranosus muscles. The research material was composed of 30 samples of both muscles from the Pulawska breed pigs. At the end of the fattening period lasting 114 days, pigs were slaughtered and classified to 3 groups according to the slaughter weight: 100 +/- 2.5 kg - group I, 105 +/- 2.5 kg - group II and 110 +/- 2.5 kg - group III, and then 10 longissimus lumborum and 10 semimembranosus muscles were taken from each group. There was no statistically significant impact of the pig slaughter weight on the content of basic ingredients in both muscles, with the exception of intramuscular fat (IF) in the semimembranosus. Most IF was determined in the semimembranosus pig muscle with the highest (110 +/- 2.5 kg) slaughter weight and the difference was significant (p <= 0.05) compared to the lightest pigs (100 +/- 2.5 kg). Although the slaughter weight did not affect significantly the overall content of mineral compounds (ash) in muscles, some influence of this factor on certain elements was found. Meat from the lightest pigs contained less Zn and Cu in comparison to meat from the heaviest ones (p <= 0.05). The lipids of both muscles of lighter pigs (group I and II) were richer in PUFA than the lipids of muscles of the heaviest pigs (p <= 0.05). The results give rise to the recommendation of slaughtering Pulawska pigs with the body weight of 100 +/- 2.5 kg to 105 +/- 2.5 kg, as this provides meat with less intramuscular fat, and whose profile of fatty acids is more favourable to the human body.