Can pigs fed on swill be eaten, and how do they differ from feed-fed pigs?

Summary: What are the differences between swill-fed pigs, feed-fed pigs and home-raised pigs?

This question reminds me of the pigs our own family raised back home when I was a child. In the past, rural households would raise a few pigs to supplement the family income or to have meat for themselves. What the pigs ate was mostly the family's leftovers, plus some wheat bran and leaf beet and the like. The pigs raised at home back then grew slowly, but the taste was still very good.

Can swill-fed pigs be eaten?

Here we first need to make two things clear. First, raising pigs on restaurant kitchen waste, the so-called "swill", is a pig-farming method banned by the state. Second, raising pigs on swill is different from the household pig-raising of the past in rural areas.

Let me first talk about the problem of raising pigs on swill. Swill pig farming has not been very common in recent years. Nowadays many farmers who raise pigs on swill do so very secretively, and it is no longer as open as before. Because everyone knows that feeding pigs swill is very unsanitary. Swill is just some leftover food from restaurants, and these things contain a great deal of grease and are very prone to breeding all kinds of bacteria and pathogens.

Many swill pig farms, for convenience, feed the swill directly to the pigs without high-temperature sterilisation. This way of raising pigs very easily causes the pigs to get sick and increases the chances of the pigs getting parasites and infectious diseases. And because the swill has a very high grease content, after the pigs eat it the fat accumulates, making the fattening period long and the meat quality poor.

Moreover, many of these pig farms that raise pigs on swill fail to meet standards in sanitation and disease prevention. Neither such pig farms nor the pigs raised on this swill can be eaten. So raising pigs on swill is a very unscientific and unsanitary farming method. Our country's laws prohibit this farming method, and in many regions, in order to crack down on swill pig farming, they cut it off at the source. Once a case of swill pig farming is found, not only does the farmer face punishment, but the restaurant that sold the swill is also dealt with accordingly.

Home-raised pigs

Next let me talk about the pigs raised by rural households in the past. In the past, rural households would raise a few pigs, because raising pigs is relatively simple and the fattening time is relatively short. Rural households generally fed the family's leftovers to the pigs. Although these are also leftovers, food cooked at home is much cleaner than that in restaurants. And there is not much leftover food at home either; most of the time the pigs were fed some wheat bran, green vegetable leaves and the like. This kind of home-raised pig was mostly for one's own consumption, and this pork tasted very good, but it is rarely seen now.

Feed-fed pigs

Finally there are the pigs fed on feed. This should be the main way pigs are raised at present; feed feeding is generally carried out by large-scale pig farms. This way of raising pigs is relatively hygienic, and feeding with feed is convenient; the feed also has correspondingly some antibiotics and so on added to it. Pigs raised this way reach market weight early and get sick relatively little. But because the fattening time is relatively short, the taste and texture of the meat are not very good.

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