A study on effect of pH on ageing pork quality under different storage conditions

It is very important to improve meat quality and its preservation for consumer acceptance at retail market. Tenderness of meat is a major quality attribute affecting consumer purchasing decision and one of the important factors that determines tenderness is pH of the meat. The objective of the current study was to determine the effect of ageing time and temperature combinations on pH of fresh pork obtained from adult animals. The pork was kept for ageing in two different packing conditions i.e., Aerobic and Vacuum at two different temperatures i.e., 4 °C and 7 °C. The sampling was done for assessment on 0, 6 and 12 days. We found that the ideal pH falling in the range of 5.7 to 6 was observed in vacuum packed samples both at 4 °C and 7 °C. From our study it can be concluded that vacuum packaging is a better option to maintain ideal pH of pork that ensures tenderness at both at 4 °C and 7 °C.