Development of empirical models for pork quality

Pork quality is an important issue for the whole meat chain, from producers, abattoirs, retailers through to costumers and is affected by a web of multi-factorial actions that occur throughout the pork production chain. A vast amount of information is available on how these diverse factors influence different pork quality traits. However, results derived from individual studies often vary and are in some cases even contradictory due to different experimental designs or different pork quality assessment techniques or protocols. Also, individual influencing factors are often studied in isolation, ignoring interacting effects. A suitable method is therefore required to account for a range of interacting factors, to combine the results from different experiments and to derive generic response-laws. The aim of this thesis was to use meta-analyses to produce quantitative, predictive models that describe how diverse factors affect pork quality over a range of experimental conditions.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo