Fresh Pork Quality and Shelf-Life Characteristics of Meat from Pigs Supplemented with Natural Astaxanthin in the Diet

The objective of this research was to evaluate the quality and shelf life of meat from pigs given dietary supplementation of natural astaxanthin. Pigs were fed either a control diet or the same diet supplemented with 66.7 mg/kg of natural astaxanthin for 42 d. Astaxanthin supplementation had no affect (P ≥ 0.117) on growth performance or ham and loin lean quality at fabrication. Loin chops from pigs supplemented with dietary astaxanthin were darker (P < 0.002) and less yellow (P = 0.006) than loin chops from control pigs during 7 d of retail display. Ground patties from picnic shoulders of pigs supplemented with dietary astaxanthin were darker (P < 0.001) and more red (P < 0.001) than ground patties from control pigs during 7 d of retail display. This initial experiment documents the viability of dietary astaxanthin supplementation as a method to improve shelf life of pork products.