| A diet supplemented with 200 mg alpha-tocopherol/kg feed for 47 days prior to slaughter was compared to a diet supplemented with 37.5 mg alpha-tocopherol/kg feed to determine the effects of dietary alpha-tocopheryl acetate on performance and glycogen metabolism of commercial hogs, meat quality and lipid oxidation of moisture enhanced pork chops during storage at -1°C for 35 days. No significant improvement in performance in the group fed additional dietary alpha-tocopherol was observed. Injection, but not diet, improved the initial pH and colour of chops. Purge loss and drip loss of chops were observed to be very low and unaffected by diet. Lipid oxidation was significantly reduced in the supplemented group on the day after slaughter, but after 35-day storage, no difference was observed between the supplemented and control group. In addition to no observed effect of diet on performance or meat quality attributes, glycolytic potential was not different between the control and supplemented group. However, pigs fed the control diet had less glycogen but more lactic acid than pigs fed the supplemented diet. |
