Effect of Dietary a Tocopherol on Level of Vitamin E in Pure Polish Landrace and Hybrid Polish Landrace x Duroc Swine Breeds and Processed Meat
The aim of this study was to assess: tocopherol (vitamin E) levels in pork made of swine fed with tocopherol enriched feed (100 and 200 mg/kg) impact of meat frying/grilling on the levels of the vitamin E; applicability of the curing method commonly used in meat industry to process also meat rich in vitamine E. Depending on feed enrichment, swine breed and the tested muscles, vitamin E levels increased from 1.7 to 4.9 mg/kg. Higher concentrations were observed in hybrid Polish Landrace x Duroc pork than in PPL pork. No significant loss of vitamin E was observed after meat frying. On the other hand, a significant loss was observed in the grilled sample, but the original level was significantly higher than in the control sample. Processing technologies routinely used in meat industry should not be applied to process vitamin enrichment since they significantly deteriorate product quality. Practical Applications Among animals fed with vitamin enriched fodder, tocopherols content was somewhat higher in hybrid Polish Landrace x Duroc breed than in PPL breed. Frying process did not cause any significant drop in tocopherols content. On the other hand such drop was observed after grilling on traditional charcoal. Vitamin enhanced meat after grilling gave final product with tocopherols concentration comparable to vitamin concentration in raw meat obtained from traditionally fed pigs. Therefore, feed enriching barely compensated loss of tocopherols during grilling. Regular industrial technologies used to process vitamin enriched meat result in products with similar tocopherols content as that observed in regular meat. Hypothesis that typical industrial smoked product technology could allow to obtain products with vitamin E levels similar to those observed in raw material has not been confirmed. It seems that there is a need to develop some separate, probably more sophisticated technology to process meat of high nutritional value.