Comparison of Meat Quality Characteristics of Wet- and Dry-aging Pork Belly and Shoulder Blade

Abstract The physicochemical characteristics and oxidative stability of wet-aged and dry-aged pork cuts were investigated at different aging periods (1, 7, 14 and 21 d). Samples were assigned into four groups in terms of shoulder blade-wet aging (SW), shoulder blade-dry aging (SD), belly-wet aging (BW), and belly-dry aging (BD). SD showed significantly higher pH at 21 d of aging than the other samples. Wet-aged cuts had significantly higher released water (RW) %, lightness (L*) and shear force compared to the dry-aged meats. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis showed greater degradation of proteins for dry-aged cuts than the wet-aged cuts. At the end of aging, wet-aged cuts showed significantly lower thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) value than the dry-aged samples, indicating higher oxidative stability for wet-aged pork cuts. However, dry-aging led to higher degradation of proteins resulting in increased water-holding capacity (WHC) and decreased shear force value.