Marbling In Pork

Pork producers council nppc which depict intramuscular fat imf content and.
Marbling in pork. Marbling is a visual meat characteristic defined as white particles visible on the cross section of the muscle albrech et al 1996 garcia et al 1968 essen gustavson et al 1994. Well marbling refers to the white flecks of intramuscular fat in each cut of meat. Marbling adds a lot of flavor and can be one indicator of how good the beef is. Marbling is the intermingling of fat with lean in a muscle and therefore is intramuscular fat deposited around or between fascial or muscle fiber bundles.
In the culinary arts the word marbling refers to white flecks and streaks of fat within the lean sections of meat. Five levels of marbling in pork steaks cut near the tenth rib. However compared to beef marbling in pork is much more variable and provides a low color contrast against the lean muscle which make its assessment more difficult faucitano and others 2005. Meat research groups actively engaged in the investigation of this con.
Marbling is so named because the streaks of fat resemble a marble pattern. In the united states pork marbling is classified by professional inspectors into 7 grades table 1 according to the marbling stan dards of the natl. It impacts the tenderness moistness and overall flavor and has become one of the most well known elements of steak evaluation. The best available evidence indicates marbling level is determined by genetics chronological age and or physiological maturity plane of nutrition duration of feeding high energy diets and undoubtedly other less well defined factors.
Intramuscular fat is usually quantitated chemically while marbling is usually visually assessed subjectively.