Hygienic assessment of the impact of sorbents on pork quality and safety indicators

Abstract

Ensuring consumers have access to high-quality animal-derived products requires continuous monitoring of prod-uct safety and quality in accordance with established standards. Therefore, physicochemical, bacteriological, and sensory evaluations were conducted on pork samples obtained from hybrid pigs (Large White × Landrace) that received one of three sorbents (“Harufix”, “ProActivo”, or “Clinotoxyl”) as a supplement to the basal diet under the production conditions of Agroprime Holding LLC, Karakurt village, Ukraine. Laboratory analyses were car-ried out at the Multidisciplinary Veterinary Medicine Laboratory of Odesa State Agrarian University, Odesa, Ukraine. The sensory evaluation of broth demonstrated that the highest mean score (4.7 points) was obtained in Group 2, whose animals received the sorbent ProActivo. In contrast, the highest mean score for meat tasting (4.8 points) was recorded in Group 1, whose animals received the sorbent Harufix. The highest protein content was found in Sample No. 5, obtained from animals in Group 2 receiving ProActivo, reaching 21.68 %. The highest collagen content (1.48 %) was detected in Sample No. 3 from animals in Group 1 receiving Harufix. The highest fat content (17.49 %) was observed in Sample No. 6 from the ProActivo group, whereas the highest moisture content (74.97 %) was recorded in Sample No. 1 from the Harufix group. Bacteriological examination revealed that the highest numbers of cocci and rod-shaped bacteria were detected in Samples No. 4 and No. 5, obtained from animals of the second experimental group receiving ProActivo, with 15–20 cocci per microscopic field in the superficial muscle layer, indicating questionable freshness of the meat. In all other samples, the number of cocci and rods did not exceed 10 microorganisms per microscopic field, corresponding to fresh meat.