A simple, reliable and reproductive method to obtain experimental pale, soft and exudative (PSE) pork

The inferior quality and economic risk of pale, soft and exudative (PSE) pork warrant continuing research. However, such research efforts are often hindered by the challenge to obtain reliable PSE muscle samples with similar quality characteristics. The objective of this study was to establish a reliable and convenient method to produce PSE-like pork. A PSE condition was induced by incubation of 30-min postmortem Longissimus muscle at 35 °C for 7 h followed by chilling to 4 °C. Compared to normal red, firm and non-exudative (RFN) pork (kept at 4 °C), PSE muscle had consistently lower pH2h (5.46 vs. 5.74) and pH4h (5.35 vs. 5.52), higher L* (lightness) value (56.5 vs. 51.0), and reduced protein solubility and thermal stability (enthalpy and temperature) than RFN muscle (P < 0.05). The highly reproducible results indicate that incubation of muscle immediately postmortem at 35 °C offers a simple and consistent method to produce PSE pork.