Effects of maternal vitamin D₃ status on quality characteristics of pork batters in offspring pigs during cold storage

Abstract

Seventy-two offspring pigs (150 d) from 27 sow (9 sows per group) fed different vitamin D₃ levels were used to evaluate the effects of maternal vitamin D₃ status and postmortem cold storage on cooking loss, color, texture profile analysis (TPA), low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) T₂ relaxation times and dynamic rheological of gel properties of chilled pork batters in offspring pigs. Sows were allotted to low, normal, and high dietary vitamin D₃ groups which contained 200 (LD), 800 (ND), and 3200 (HD) IU of vitamin D₃/kg basal diet, respectively. Results showed that HD group had higher a* value, hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, chewiness, and storage modulus (G') values, while had lower cooking loss, L* value, T₂₁ and T₂₂ relaxation time compared with LD group during postmortem cold storage period (P < 0.05). In addition, cold storage time increased cooking loss and b* values of LD and ND groups, TPA parameters, T₂₂ relaxation time and G' values of all experimental groups, while decreased a* and L* values of LD and ND groups (P < 0.05). The results revealed that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ levels influenced these indicators of chilled pork batters in offspring pigs, which improved the quality attributes during postmortem cold storage.

Keywords:
vitamin D₃; offspring pigs; pork batters; cold storage; quality attributes

1 Introduction

Previous studies found that maternal nutrition status during pregnancy influenced the development of fetal muscle, and postnatal health of offspring through regulating the environment in the uterus (Godfrey & Barker, 2000; Musser et al., 2004; Zhu et al., 2006). The development of skeletal muscle in the early to mid-gestation period has an important influence on the number and composition of offspring muscle fibers in cattle (Zhu et al., 2006). And other researcher observed that maternal nutritional (energy) restriction during late pregnancy decreased the expression of genes in muscle of offspring calves, which indicated that alterations in the intra-uterine environment could change prenatal development and muscle development (Sanglard et al., 2018; Costa et al., 2021). In the lipid metabolism, vitamin D has potential nutritional regulation in animals (Wang et al., 2016). Maternal vitamin D₃ levels affected intramuscular adipocyte commitment and differentiation in piglets by regulating adipogenesis related genes expression (Guo et al., 2020a). Maternal vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy promoted the proliferation and differentiation of pre-adipocytes, and resulted in offspring obesity (Wen et al., 2018). In addition, maternal vitamin D levels during late pregnancy also affects the development of offspring muscle (Harvey et al., 2014). For example, this study found that prenatal and postnatal skeletal muscle development in offspring pigs was thought to rise maternal vitamin D levels, possibly due to the involvement of vitamin D₃ in the myogenic signaling pathway in the expression of muscle transcription factors (Zhou et al., 2016). Intramuscular fat (IMF) deposition affects meat quality of animals, and appropriate amount of IMF can promote the taste, juiciness and tenderness of meat, which enhancing the meat quality (Li et al., 2020b). Therefore, IMF is important for meat palatability, and adipocytes in embryonic stage can provide deposition site for increasing IMF content in later fattening stage (Tong et al., 2008; Du et al., 2010). Our previous work demonstrated that maternal vitamin D₃ supplementation significantly boosted IMF accumulation and meat quality in offspring pigs (Guo et al., 2020a; 2020b). Therefore, adjustment of maternal nutritional status is considered to be an effective method to increase adipogenesis in fetal muscle, and enhance marbling of offspring (Du et al., 2013). Enhancing evidence showed that the condition of postmortem storage has also become an important factor affecting meat quality, and pork batters can reduce the rate of fat and protein oxidation when stored at low temperature (Pomponio & Ruiz-Carrascal, 2017). In addition, pork can effectively improve the ability of myofibrillar protein hydrolysis and increase flavor and water retention in the process of postmortem ripening (Li et al., 2009). There is no doubt about the influence of maternal vitamin D₃ supplementation on pork quality of offspring. Nonetheless, little is known about how maternal vitamin D₃ supplementation affects the quality of offspring minced pork during storage. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the effects of maternal vitamin D₃ levels on cooking loss, meat color, texture properties, low-field NMR T₂ relaxation time and dynamic rheological properties of chilled pork batters of offspring during postmortem storage.

2 Materials and methods

2.1 Animals and diets

All handling protocols related to animals were approved by the Henan Institute of Science and Technology Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (No. 2020HIST013, Xinxiang, P.R. China). All offspring pigs used in this study originated from sows fed various vitamin D₃ levels (during pregnancy), all diets and experimental design for sows and their offspring pigs as described in our previous companion reports (Guo et al., 2020b; Guo et al., 2021) Sows during pregnancy were previously added 200 (LD), 800 (ND), and 3200 (HD) IU of vitamin D₃ per kg diet, respectively. While their offspring pigs were fed the same vitamin D₃ diet, and the feeding experiment lasted for 150 days.

2.2 Tissue collection

Six offspring pigs per each group (2 offspring pigs per replicate, randomly selected) were slaughtered based on body weight and gender (Miao et al., 2009). After slaughtering, the carcass was split longitudinally. The longissimus dorsi muscle was divided into three parts and refrigerated at 4 °C for 0, 24 and 48 h, respectively. Muscle sample was grinded using a meat grinder (6 mm), and weighed 200 g, added 20% ice water and 2% NaCl to each sample.

2.3 Cooking loss measurement

Samples of pork batters were separately packed with a plastic bag and kept in 85 °C water for 20 min. Samples of cooked pork batters were chilled to room temperature for 30 min. Wipe off the surface exudates with absorbent paper. The cooking loss was calculated according to the percentage weigh ratio of pork batters before and after cooking (Choi et al., 2016) (Equation 1).

$$Cookingloss\left(\%\right)=\left(M_b-M_a\right)/M_b$$ (1)

In this equation, M_b and M_a represent the weight of pork batters before and after cooking (Zhang et al., 2019).

2.4 Color measurement

The exudates from the surface of cooked pork batters are wiped off using absorbent paper. After storage in refrigerator at 4 °C for 0, 24 and 48 h, the color of pork batters in offspring pigs was determined with a colorimeter (Konica Minolta CR 410, Sensing Inc, Osaka, Japan). The meat color contained lightness (L*), redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) value, respectively (Jia et al., 2012).

2.5 TPA (Texture profile analysis)

The cooked pork batters were stored in refrigerator at 4 °C for 0, 24 and 48 h, and then sorted into cylinders with a diameter of 2 cm and a height of 3 cm. And then, the texture of the samples was determined using P/36R probe. Each sample was measured three times in parallel, and then the average values of springiness, hardness, chewiness, and cohesiveness were analyzed.

2.6 LF-NMR (Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance)

LF-NMR imaging analyzer (NMI20-040V-I, Suzhou Newmai Analytical instrument Co., Ltd.) was used to determine the transverse relaxation times of cooked pork batters of offspring pigs according to the previously reported methods (Zhang et al., 2019; Straadt et al., 2007). Briefly, cooked pork batters in offspring pigs were sorted into cylinders with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a height of 3 cm, and each cylinder was put into a cylindrical tube with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a height of 5 cm. The Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill pulse sequence was used to determine the transverse relaxation time (T₂) of LF-NMR at 32 °C, 200 μs (between 90°and 180° pulse), and 22.4 MHz resonance frequency. In total 2000 echoes (contain 8 scans) were obtained from each sample, and the scan interval time was 3 s. Meanwhile, each meat sample was measured three times in parallel, the average value of relaxation time was calculated.

2.7 Dynamic rheological measurement

The MCR301 Dynamic Rheometer (HAAKE MARS Rotary, Thermo Scientific co., Germany) with a 50 mm parallel steel plate geometry (0.5 mm gap) was used to determine dynamic rheological difference. Briefly, the raw pork batters were placed between the flat parallel plates which coated with a layer of silicone oil, and were performed at a rate 2 °C/min from 20 °C to 80 °C. An oscillatory mode of 10% was carried out to shear the samples at a fixed frequency of 0.1 Hz. Each sample was measured three times in parallel, and the change of storage modulus (G') with temperature was determined during the heating (Kang et al., 2017; Zhu et al., 2019).

2.8 Statistical analysis

In the present study, statistical analysis was performed with the one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedures of SPSS 17.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). All treatment means were considered significant differences at P < 0.05 by Duncan’s multiple range tests. Data were presented as mean ± standard error of the means (SEM).

3 Results

3.1 Changes of cooking loss of pork batters in offspring pigs

As shown in Table 1, cooking loss of pork batters in offspring pigs derived from HD group was lower than that derived from LD and ND groups at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem storage (P < 0.05), while there were no differences in cooking loss between LD and ND groups (P > 0.05). Meanwhile, offspring pigs born to ND and LD groups had lower cooking loss of pork batters at 0 h compared with that at 48 h postmortem storage (P < 0.05). No significant differences in cooking loss of pork batters of HD group were found among all storage times (P > 0.05). Our research found that the cooking loss of ND and LD groups was lower at 0 h than at 48 h postmortem cold storage.

Table 1
Effects of maternal vitamin D₃ status on cooking loss of pork batters in offspring pigs during postmortem storage.

Item	Groups			SEM	P-value
	LD	ND	HD
0 h	13.38Ba	12.61Ba	10.29b	0.693	0.043
24 h	14.66ABa	13.84ABa	11.37b	0.838	0.031
48 h	15.76Aa	14.96Aa	11.63b	0.561	0.026
SEM	0.876	0.932	0.541	-	-
P-value	0.034	0.047	0.066	-	-

• In the same column, values with different capital superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). In the same line, values with different small letter superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05).
• LD, low vitamin D₃ group. ND, normal vitamin D₃ group. HD, high vitamin D₃ group.

3.2 Changes of color of pork batters in offspring pigs

As shown in Table 2, pork batters of HD group had higher a* values, while lower L* values compared with LD group at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem storage (P < 0.05). Compared with 48 h postmortem storage, the a* and L* values of pork batters of ND and LD groups were higher at 0 h postmortem storage (P < 0.05). However, no significant differences in a* and L* values of pork batters were determined in HD group at all postmortem storage times (P > 0.05). b* values of pork batters in HD and ND groups were lower than that in LD group at all postmortem storage times (P < 0.05). Compared with 0 h postmortem storage, the b* values of pork batters in ND and LD groups were higher at 48 h postmortem storage (P < 0.05), while no significant differences in b* value of pork batters in HD group were measured at all storage times (P > 0.05).

Table 2
Effects of maternal vitamin D₃ status on color of pork batters in offspring pigs during postmortem storage.

Item	Groups			SEM	P-value
	LD	ND	HD
Lightness (L*)
0 h	79.44Aa	78.72Aab	75.14b	1.811	0.045
24 h	78.34ABa	77.63ABab	75.60b	2.193	0.039
48 h	77.06Ba	75.54Bab	74.83b	1.547	0.041
SEM	1.633	1.766	2.441	-	-
P-value	0.027	0.036	0.077	-	-
Redness (a*)
0 h	4.96Ab	5.08Aab	5.37a	0.152	0.013
24 h	3.61ABb	3.96ABab	4.66a	0.339	0.048
48 h	3.42Bb	3.67Bab	4.32a	0.207	0.024
SEM	0.293	0.344	0.413	-	-
P-value	0.022	0.018	0.053	-	-
Yellowness (b*)
0 h	9.51Ba	8.33Bb	8.18b	0.352	0.043
24 h	9.98ABa	8.91ABb	8.63b	0.579	0.032
48 h	10.87Aa	9.73Ab	8.84b	0.424	0.015
SEM	0.873	0.698	0.732	-	-
P-value	0.036	0.013	0.061	-	-

• In the same column, values with different capital superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). In the same line, values with different small letter superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). LD, low vitamin D₃ group. ND, normal vitamin D₃ group. HD, high vitamin D₃ group.

3.3 Changes of TPA of pork batters in offspring pigs

As shown in Table 3, hardness, and chewiness of pork batters in ND group were lower than those in HD group, and were higher than those in LD group at all postmortem storage times (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, springiness and cohesiveness of pork batters in HD group were higher than that in LD group at all postmortem cold storage times (P<0.05). Compared with 0 h, all experimental groups (LD, ND and HD) had higher springiness, hardness, chewiness, and cohesiveness of pork batters at 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage (P < 0.05).

Table 3
Effects of maternal vitamin D₃ status on TPA of pork batters in offspring pigs during postmortem storage.

Item	Groups			SEM	P-value
	LD	ND	HD
Hardness, N
0 h	38.19Ac	43.39Ab	50.15Aa	1.873	0.041
24 h	33.20Bc	37.33Bb	42.74Ba	1.795	0.045
48 h	33.14Bc	35.84Bb	37.03Ca	1.532	0.038
SEM	1.006	1.704	1.014	-	-
P-value	0.025	0.029	0.012	-	-
Springiness
0h	0.941Ab	1.189Aab	1.360Aa	0.004	0.003
24h	0.866Bb	0.930Bab	1.051Ba	0.006	0.018
48 h	0.813Bb	0.828Bab	0.841Ca	0.012	0.027
SEM	0.011	0.063	0.019	-	-
P-value	0.023	0.034	0.012	-	-
Cohesiveness
0 h	0.491Ab	0.539Aab	0.599Aa	0.009	0.004
24 h	0.416Bb	0.436Bab	0.480Ba	0.004	0.003
48 h	0.414Bb	0.425Bab	0.449Ca	0.006	0.013
SEM	0.034	0.029	0.014	-	-
P-value	0.031	0.022	0.004	-	-
Chewiness, N·mm
0 h	15.45Ac	19.63Ab	23.68Aa	0.554	0.022
24 h	10.15Bc	13.57Bb	18.58Ba	0.538	0.043
48 h	9.75Bc	12.09Bb	14.53Ca	0.117	0.048
SEM	0.884	0.691	1.135	-	-
P-value	0.033	0.025	0.011	-	-

• In the same column, values with different capital superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). In the same line, values with different small letter superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). LD, low vitamin D₃ group. ND, normal vitamin D₃ group. HD, high vitamin D₃ group.

3.4 Changes of LF-NMR of pork batters in offspring pigs

As shown in Table 4 and Figure 1, there were three characteristic peaks in the T₂ relaxation time map of pork batters in offspring pigs. There were no significant differences in T_2a relaxation time of pork batters among all groups during postmortem storage times (P > 0.05). Whereas, T₂₁ relaxation time of pork batters of offspring pigs in HD group at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem were significantly lower than those in LD groups (P < 0.05). In addition, T₂₂ relaxation time of pork batters in LD group were higher than that in HD and ND groups at 0, 24 and 48 h (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, The T₂₂ relaxation time of pork batters of offspring pigs in all groups at 48 h was significantly higher than that at 0 and 24 h postmortem cold storage (P < 0.05). There were no differences in T₂₁ relaxation time of pork batters at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage in the same group (P > 0.05).

Table 4
Effects of maternal vitamin D₃ status on LF-NMR of pork batters in offspring pigs during postmortem storage.

Item	Groups			SEM	P-value
	LD	ND	HD
T2a, ms
0 h	0.054a	0.054a	0.052a	0.001	0.207
24 h	0.052a	0.054a	0.052a	0.001	0.173
48 h	0.054a	0.054a	0.052a	0.001	0.196
SEM	0.001	0.001	0.001	-	-
P-value	0.211	0.198	0.242	-	-
T21, ms
0h	15.19a	14.88ab	13.25b	0.801	0.039
24h	15.47a	14.88ab	14.68b	0.663	0.022
48 h	14.88a	14.48ab	13.68b	0.512	0.047
SEM	0.713	0.601	0.858	-	-
P-value	0.061	0.274	0.127	-	-
T22, ms
0 h	231.01a	191.95Bb	191.46Bb	5.416	0.025
24 h	232.52a	193.51Bb	192.20Bb	3.426	0.031
48 h	233.76a	205.95Ab	200.92Ab	6.191	0.029
SEM	9.853	6.627	5.032	-	-
P-value	0.092	0.046	0.041	-	-

• In the same column, values with different capital superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). In the same line, values with different small letter superscripts mean significant difference (P < 0.05). LD, low vitamin D₃ group. ND, normal vitamin D₃ group. HD, high vitamin D₃ group.

Figure 1
Three-dimensional T₂ relaxation time plot of pork batters in offspring pigs from LD, ND and HD groups during postmortem storage.LD, low vitamin D₃ group. ND, normal vitamin D₃ group. HD, high vitamin D₃ group. T_2a, binding water relaxation. T₂₁, immobile water relaxation time. T₂₂, free water relaxation time.

3.5 Changes of dynamic rheological of pork batters in offspring pigs

The dynamic rheological properties of pork batters of offspring pigs during postmortem cold storage are shown in Figure 2. All experimental groups had similar the typical dynamic rheological curve of pork batters, which when the temperature from 20 °C to 41 °C, G' decreased slightly, and then increased slightly with the temperature increasing from 42 °C to 50 °C. G' values moderately reduced from 54 °C to 57 °C, then G' values of pork batters rapidly increased up to 80 °C. Meanwhile, under the same postmortem storage time, G' values of pork batters in HD group were higher than that in LD and ND (P < 0.05). In addition, at the same group, G' values of pork batters of offspring pigs at 48 h were higher than those at 0 and 24 h postmortem cold storage (P < 0.05).

Figure 2
Dynamic rheological G' plot of pork batters in offspring pigs from LD, ND and HD groups during postmortem storage.LD, low vitamin D₃ group. ND, normal vitamin D₃ group. HD, high vitamin D₃ group.

4 Discussion

In the present study, it was found that there was an interaction between maternal vitamin D₃ levels and postmortem cold storage on cooking loss, meat color, texture properties, LF-NMR T₂ relaxation time and dynamic rheological properties of pork batters in offspring pigs. These results revealed that maternal vitamin D₃ level and postmortem storage impacted the quality of pork batters in offspring pigs via adjusting meat quality indices.

Our research found that the cooking loss of ND and LD groups was lower at 0 h than at 48 h postmortem cold storage. These results suggested that water holding capacity (WHC) of pork batters was affected by postmortem cold storage. The results are in accordance with previous reports (Añón & Calvelo, 1980), in which it was found that freezing or frozen storage decrease the WHC of meat, and the cooking loss of meat was increased during cold storage (Xu et al., 2012; Hong et al., 2015). These results may be due to the destruction of muscle tissue structure during postmortem cold storage, resulting in the reduction of water protein interaction, which reduces the WHC of meat (Cheng et al., 2020). Previous study has demonstrated that the decrease in WHC of meat may be related to the decrease of pH value, the denaturation of proteins and the destruction of muscle fiber structure during cold storage (Leygonie et al., 2012). Meanwhile, no differences in cooking loss of pork batters were observed in HD group during whole postmortem cold storage times, which suggested that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ addition decreased the cooking loss, and increased juiciness of pork batters in offspring pigs at all postmortem cold storage times. The reason may be that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ addition inhibited the decline of cooking loss by reducing the decline of pH value in meat samples, and improving the juiciness of pork batters in offspring pigs (Guo et al., 2021). In addition, the cooking loss in LD and ND groups was higher than that in HD group at 0 h, 24 h and 48 h postmortem cold storage, which indicated that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ addition could improve the water retention of pork batters of offspring pigs. The reason may be that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ supplementation decrease cooking loss of offspring pigs by regulating pH values, muscle fiber structure and the denaturation of proteins during postmortem cold storage (Leygonie et al., 2012; Guo et al., 2021).

Growing evidence have demonstrated that one of the most important sensory attributes of fresh pork is color, which affects consumers’ purchase of red meat (Cheng et al., 2020; Risvik, 1994). In our study, offspring pigs in HD group had higher a^* values of pork batters than the offspring pigs in LD group at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage. The results revealed that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ supplementation can maintained the stability of redness of longissimus dorsi muscles of offspring pigs. These results are consistent with the meat color change trend of offspring pigs during postmortem cold storage times (Guo et al., 2021). The possible reason is that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ supplementation can protect the phospholipid content against lipid peroxidation of pork batters in offspring pigs, and improved the color stability (Kumar et al., 2015). Similar results were found by pervious researcher (Duffy et al., 2018), who observed that on storage for 7 days, dietary 25-OH-D₃ supplementation may maintain the color stability of muscle samples with an increased redness by delaying the lipid peroxidation of muscle samples. Meanwhile, the value of L* and b* of pork batters in HD group were lower than those in LD group at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage, which indicated that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ levels inhibit lightness and yellowness of pork batters in offspring pigs and prolong the postmortem cold storage time. Similar results were observed by a previous report (Wiegand et al., 2002), that found dietary vitamin D₃ supplementation (125,000 μg) at 7 to 14 days postmortem decreased L* values of pigs compared with the control group. Another study also observed that vitamin D₃ supplementation (2000 μg) lowered L* values of pork (Wilborn et al., 2004). However, vitamin D₃ supplementation did not affect b* values of pork (Wiegand et al., 2002; Wilborn et al., 2004). Inconsistent research results might be due to the species or age, dosage of vitamin D₃, and duration of feeding vitamin D₃ supplementation. In addition, there were no differences in L* and a* values of HD group at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage, which indicated that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ addition inhibited the decrease of L* and a* values, and prolonged retail display of pork batters of offspring pigs at postmortem cold storage times. However, pork batter shows a decrease in redness value with prolonged refrigeration due to lipid oxidation increasing the number of free radicals, resulting in an increase in the rate of oxidation of myoglobin (Li et al., 2020a).

The texture of meat is usually considered to be the most important quality attributes that affecting consumer acceptance (Lee et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2013). The springiness, hardness, chewiness, and cohesiveness of pork batters was increased by animal fat and sesame oil (Kang et al., 2017). In the present study, the springiness, hardness, chewiness, and cohesiveness of pork batters of HD group were higher than that of LD group at postmortem cold storage times, which indicated that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ supplementation improved texture properties of pork batters in offspring pigs. These results may be due to the increase of IMF content in offspring pigs by maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ supplementation (Guo et al., 2020a). The underlying mechanism still need to be proven by further investigation. In addition, our study found that the hardness, chewiness, springiness and cohesiveness of pork batters in offspring pig from all groups decreased with postmortem cold storage time. Similar results also were observed by pervious researcher (Cheng et al., 2020), who found that textural properties of beef decreased with storage time, which was supported by the decrease in water holding capacity. In addition, Liu et al. believed that the decrease in patty textural qualities was induced by a high freezing temperature (−8 °C) and long freezing time (Li et al., 2020a). These results suggested that TPA parameters of pork batters were influenced by cold storage time. The reason may be that the cooking loss of pork batters increases with storage time (as shown in Table 1), and finally decreased the TPA parameters. Previous studies also found similar trends in sheep and camel muscles (Martínez-Arellano et al., 2013; Maqsood et al., 2015). The decrease of textural properties may be also caused by the degradation of porcine muscle by microorganisms and the endogenous enzyme (Cheng et al., 2020). However, other study observed that the TPA parameters of beef meat increased during storage period from 1 to 10 d (Trabelsi et al., 2019). Lund et al. (2007) also found that the hardness of porcine longissimus dorsi was increased during chill storage. The reason may be caused by the development of protein oxidation products in muscle samples during cold storage (Srinivasan et al., 1996). Inconsistent results in TPA parameters might be due to species, the temperature, and times of cold storage.

LF-NMR T₂ relaxation time usually could be used to characterize water fluidity and distribution of meat, which was helpful to comprehend the effects of autopsy and chilling on WHC in meat (Straadt et al., 2007). Pervious study has demonstrated that T_2a, T₂₁ and T₂₂ indicates the binding water combined with protein, water in the muscle fiber network, and free water, respectively (McDonnell et al., 2013). In this study, there was no differences in T_2a of pork batters in offspring pigs were measured during cold storage in all-experimental groups, which indicated that binding water of pork batters of offspring pigs was not influenced by maternal vitamin D₃ levels during cold storage period from 0 to 48 h postmortem. In addition, HD group had lower T₂₁ and T₂₂ of pork batters than LD group at 0, 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage. Moreover, compared with bound water and non-flowing water, free water has the highest content. This is consistent with the findings of Luo et al. (2021), which are attributed to cell membrane rupture. These results suggested that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ addition could inhabit water mobility, increase juiciness, and improve the quality of pork batters in offspring pigs during cold storage period. Our research also observed that offspring pigs in LD, ND and HD groups had higher T₂₂ of pork batters at 48 h than those at 0 and 24 h postmortem cold storage, which indicated that water mobility was affected by postmortem cold storage.

The dynamic rheological properties are usually used to evaluate heat induced myofibrillar proteins gelation, which reflect the quality of protein. In the present study, offspring pigs from all groups had similar heating curve, and G' values increased slowly from 42 °C to 50 °C, which indicated that the denaturation and gelation of pork batters were occurred (Kang et al., 2017; Xiong & Brekke, 1990; Ali et al., 2015). From 54 °C to 57 °C, G' values of pork batters had a moderate decrease, similar results were observed by previous research (Kang et al., 2017; Álvarez et al., 2012). And then, the G' values of pork batters rapidly increased up to 80 °C, which may be that the viscous sol becomes an elastic gel network. In addition, HD group had higher G' value compared with ND and LD groups at the same postmortem cold storage time, which suggested that maternal high-dose vitamin D₃ addition could improve protein network and texture of pork batters in offspring pigs. Whereas, the underlying mechanism still need to be proven by further investigation. Meanwhile, our study also found that at the same group, G' values of pork batters of offspring pigs were lower at 0 h than that at 24 and 48 h postmortem cold storage, which suggested that postmortem cold storage times also affected the protein network and texture of pork batter. Similar results were also observed in pork batters (Wang et al., 2018), which indicated that the gel characteristics or pork batters were decreased with cold storage time.

5 Conclusion

Maternal vitamin D₃ status and cold storage time influenced cooking loss, meat color, texture properties, low-field NMR T₂ relaxation time and dynamic rheological properties of pork batters, and changed the quality attributes of pork batters in offspring pigs.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Program for Innovative Research Team (in Science and Technology) in University of Henan Province (22IRTSTHN026) grants, the Henan joint funds of National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1604102) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31572417).

• Practical Application: Vitamin D₃ affects the quality of pork batters.
• Suli Wang and Liping Guo: these two authors contributed equally to this work.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  05 Jan 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  28 Sept 2021
• Accepted
  02 Nov 2021