Lipids in monogastric animal meat

Abstract

Meat from monogastric animals, essentially pigs and poultry, is from afar the most consumed of all meats. Meat products from every species have their own characteristics. For a long time, pig meat has been presented as a fatty meat because of the importance of subcutaneous adipose tissue. Actually, when the visible fat is separated, this meat is rather poor in lipids: pieces eaten as fresh meat and without transformation, such as roasts, contain less then 2% total lipids. Poultry meat has always had a reputation of leanness because of its low content in intramuscular lipids. In addition, adipose tissues, localised in the abdominal cavity, are easily separable. The progress in genetics and a better knowledge of dietary needs has allowed to improve growth performances, to increase muscle weight and, in the pig, to strongly decrease carcass adiposity. However, strong contradictions appear between transformers and nutritionists, especially concerning the pig: the former wish to have meat with adipose tissues containing a high percentage of saturated fatty acids and the latter wish meat with more unsaturated fatty acids. The consumer, however, regrets the pigs of yesteryear or the poultry bred on farmyard that had tastier meat. At the same time, however, they request meat with a low fat content, which is paradoxical.