Color, Marbling, and Firmness Characteristics of Fresh Hams from Barrows Supplemented with Conjugated Linoleic Acid

This study is a part of a continuing research project investigating the feeding of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) to market pigs to achieve improvements in carcass growth and pork-quality characteristics. The CLA was fed at a constant level (0.75%) from 40 kg to 115 kg of body weight. This resulted in an increase in subjective uniformity, color, marbling, and tended to increase objective L* values of hams from pigs supplemented with CLA compared with hams that were from pigs fed a control diet. No treatment differences were observed for pH, ham weight, firmness, and Hunter a* and b* values. This report will focus on the subjective and objective quality and compositional characteristics of fresh pork hams form CLAsupplemented pigs. Pigs supplemented CLA in finishing diets had as high ham quality as controls. Therefore, CLA would be beneficial in swine diets