Number 40     October 1994

MAFF UK - NUTRIENT ANALYSIS OF RETAIL CUTS OF PORK

Index to MAFF UK Food Surveillance Information Sheets, 1994

This survey is part of the Ministry's ongoing surveillance of nutrient levels in food. It was commissioned in order to provide up to date nutritional information on a range of raw and cooked retail cuts of pork. The new data were needed in order to quantify changes in composition resulting from changes in breeds of animals, husbandry and butchering practices, and cooking procedures.

A total of 11 cuts of fresh pork and two cuts of frozen pork were each analysed both in the raw state and cooked by one or more different methods. Lean and fat parts of the meat were analysed separately, making a total of nearly 60 composite samples. Each composite sample comprised about 10 sub-samples purchased from a range of retail outlets throughout Great Britain, which were prepared and cooked (if necessary) by the contractor, and then bulked for analysis.

Analyses were carried out for proximates, individual sugars, inorganics, vitamins, fatty acids and sterols. Proportions of lean, separable fat and inedible matter were also recorded for all samples.

The results will be used in MAFF's dietary surveys and will therefore help to establish the nutrient intake of the population. In addition they will be incorporated into a future supplement to McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods.

The reports of the survey (one on fatty acids, one on other nutrients) are held in the MAFF Library at Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR (Tel: +44 (0)71 238 6573).

Further enquiries should be addressed to:

Mrs Susan Church
MAFF, Food Safety and Science Group
Consumers & Nutrition Policy Division
Room 350 Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR

Tel: +44 (0) 171 238 5764
Fax: +44 (0) 171 238 5778

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