Effect of Mineral Supplementation on Pork Muscle Color as Measured by Spectrophotometry and Disk Colorimetry

Abstract

The levels of zinc, iron and copper used to supplement swine rations in this study had no significant effect upon myoglobin concentration of the Longissimus dorsi muscle. A highly significant relationship was found between the index of fading and myoglobin concentration. From this, it may be concluded that disk colorimetry might be used as a method for estimating myoglobin content of pork muscle. The effect of fat and total moisture content upon color renotations and myoglobin concentrations was found to be non-significant. This indicated that little relationship exists between the fat and moisture content of pork muscle and its color, whether it be measured as a surface phenomenon by disk colorimetry, or as a pigment concentration by spectrophotometry. Copyright © . .