La revue Viandes et produits carnés

Ocular infrared thermography to predict pork quality

Infra-red thermography (IRT) body temperature readings were taken in the ocular region of 258 pigs immediately before slaughter. Levels of lactate were measured in blood taken in the restrainer. Meat quality was assessed in the Longissimus dorsi (LD) and Semimembranosus (SM) muscles. Ocular IRT (IROT) temperature was positively correlated with blood lactate levels, with pH taken 1 hour post-mortem and drip loss in the LD muscle, and negatively with pH 1 hour post-mortem in the SM muscle. Potentially, IROT may be a useful tool to assess the physiological conditions of pigs at slaughter and predict the variation of important meat quality traits. However, the magnitude of the correlations is rather low, so a further development of image capture technique and further studies under more variable preslaughter conditions ensuring a larger pork quality variation are needed.