Pork Purchasing Tips, How to Distinguish Male and Female Pork, and Pork Market Analysis

Pork, also known as pig meat, is the meat of the domestic pig, one of the main livestock animals and a member of the Suidae family. Its nature and flavor are sweet, salty, and neutral, and it can be used as a nutritious tonic. So what should we pay attention to when buying pork? How do we identify (distinguish) male pork from female pork? What are the current pork market trends?

What should we pay attention to when buying pork?

When buying pork, choose products with elastic meat and normal color, and check whether the rind bears a quarantine inspection stamp. The details are as follows:

(1) Characteristics of fresh pork: elastic, soft yet firm; when pressed with a finger, it quickly returns to its original shape; the meat color is dark red.

(2) Characteristics of water-injected pork: poor elasticity; when pressed with a finger, the fingerprint is slow to disappear or does not disappear at all, and there is no sticky sensation between the fingers; the meat color is white.

(3) Characteristics of diseased pork: rice pork (measly pork), in which the lean meat contains small translucent blisters the size of soybeans, with rice-grain-like lumps inside. Other diseased pork: muscles lack elasticity, the skin has bleeding spots, the meat color is dull dark red, and the fat is pink or yellow.

(4) Characteristics of old sow pork: when pinched by hand, it feels as if it contains sand grains; the pores are deep and large; the rind is thick and yellow, the fatty tissue is dry and yellow and separates from the muscle; the lean meat is dirty red with coarse striations; the spare ribs are thick-boned and more curved.

How do we identify (distinguish) male pork from female pork?

Identifying female pork:

Sow pork has a certain sexual odor, a relatively low fat content, and after cooking the muscle becomes rather hard, especially the skin; its palatability is poor, and people are not accustomed to eating it. During quarantine inspection, sows and normal fattened pigs are relatively easy to distinguish, but sow pork sold in farmers' markets is very difficult to identify, because at that point most of the meat is in quartered form, with no head, trotters, internal organs, or reproductive organs visible. To distinguish and identify it, one mainly relies on sensory examination, focusing on the skin, teats, pelvic cavity, periosteum, muscle, and fat.

(1) The skin tissue structure is loose, coarse, and whitish, rather thick and hard, with wrinkled skin on the neck and lower abdomen. If slaughtering took place long ago, the skin shrinks and dries even more noticeably, losing its elasticity.

(2) The skin does not bind tightly to the subcutaneous fat; between the two there is a thin layer of pink fat, the so-called “red line.” The subcutaneous fat layer is thin, and the outer fat membrane is yellowish-white. The pH value is 6.5 to 7.0; the older the sow, the more the pH value tends toward alkaline.

(3) Because the subcutaneous fat is thin, the muscle appears lean, with coarse muscle fibers and little intramuscular fat, often brick red in color.

(4) The teats are large, long, and greasy-smooth. The base of the teat is large and cone-shaped; mammary glands are present on both sides at the udder, appearing grayish-white or coffee-colored when cut open, with the mammary glands extending deep into the fat layer in a honeycomb-like pattern. The pores around the udder are large and sparse.

(5) The ribs are generally flat and wide, and the periosteum is pale yellow; in old sows the ribs are markedly raised. The ribs of normal pigs are bluish-red.

Identifying male pork:

Boar meat does not become tender easily when cooked. Because the body contains hormones such as testosterone, boar meat often gives off a rank, foul odor, and people are unwilling to eat it. This odor is not easily detected under low winter temperatures, and only when cooking and processing does it be released in large amounts, making the meat inedible. In addition, this odor gradually weakens with the length of time since castration, and disappears after about 2.5 months.

1. Main characteristics of boars

(1) The skin is thick, hard, and whitish, and the cut surface is dry; the skin on both shoulder areas is brown. In old boars, the skin on both shoulder areas becomes keratinized, hard when cut, with great resistance.

(2) The boundary between the skin and subcutaneous fat is unclear; the subcutaneous fat layer is relatively thin, with coarse fat granules, and there is more white loose connective tissue around the fat granules. When the lower abdominal fat is cut open, obvious network-like capillaries can be seen.

(3) The pores are coarse and sparse, and the skin is bluish-white or blackish.

(4) The muscle is red; the muscle fibers, especially those of the rump, shoulders, and neck, are dark red and lusterless. Because the body contains substances such as testosterone and skatole, the muscle has a distinctive rank, gamey odor.

(5) On both sides of the midline of the rear rump, the skin of the castrated testicles can sometimes be seen. In old boars, there is an oval cartilage surface on top of the scapula, usually already calcified.

Boars generally have a severe sexual odor, which becomes especially obvious after boiling. To make the odor more evident, one may use localized tissue burning, or cut off a piece of meat and boil or fry it.

2. Simple methods for identifying boar meat

(1) Boiling method: cut meat samples from the carcass under inspection into about 20 small pieces weighing 2 to 3 g each, place them in a flask filled with clean cold water, cover the mouth of the flask, uncover it after boiling, and immediately smell for any rank, gamey odor.

(2) Burning method: press a hot branding iron onto the scrotum, loin, or lower hindquarters and smell the rank, gamey odor given off.

(3) Fat-melting method: take 2 pieces of back fat or abdominal fat, weighing about 40 g, place them in a triangular flask, cover the mouth, put it in boiling water, and once the fat begins to melt, open the stopper and smell whether the escaping vapor has a rank, gamey odor.

Appendix: Pork Market Trend Analysis

Since February, live pig prices have fallen sharply, and a situation of supply exceeding demand has taken shape, and even now this situation has not been reversed. One can only say that production capacity really has increased. Many people in the breeding industry believe that, with farmers selling off large numbers before the New Year plus insufficient demand, the market has not yet fully diluted this portion of production capacity. In addition, there were also those who did not sell before the New Year and kept holding back their stock, and the production capacity sold only now has increased the market supply at the current stage. Moreover, for some large-scale farms, production is planned; even if the current pig price is low, once the next batch of piglets comes along, pens must be freed up, so many large-scale farms cut prices to sell. In short, from the perspective of supply and demand, the current pig market not only has supply exceeding demand but is also in a stage of digesting inventory, so where is the momentum for pig prices to rise? Farmers are advised to maintain a rational selling pace and not to hold back stock excessively while waiting for a better price, so as to avoid greater losses.