High Selenium pork: A Successful Product in Korea.
Selen pork, a special brand of high selenium pork, containing about ten times the selenium content of traditional pork is being marketed successfully in Korea. Pigs yielding this product are fed Sel-Plex, an organic selenium supplement which contains selenomethionine and other naturally-occurring organic selenium compounds.
A study performed in Spain2 reported that a combination of supplemental selenium and the antioxidant vitamins E and vitamin C in swine diets helped reduce drip loss and improve the shelf life of fresh pork products. Drip loss is a particular problem in pale, soft and exudative pork. Selenium and vitamins E and C are potential antioxidants. Vitamin E helps prevent lipids in the cell membrane from breaking down. Selenium also appears to protect the cell, preventing the fluid portion of the cytoplasm from breaking down.
In the study, University of Murcia researchers fed pigs 0.1 parts per million supplemental organic selenium. Pork from those pigs showed slightly lower drip loss for up to 120 hours after slaughter.
In an additional trial, consumers rated the antioxidant-supplemented pork as juicier and more tender than pork from the control pigs that were not fed organic selenium.
- Agro-Industry High Tech-January/February 2000, page 41
- A. Munoz, M. D. Garindo and M.V. Granados (1997) Effect of selenium yeast and vitamins C and E on pork meat exudation (cited by T.P. Lyons In: Biotechnology in the Feed Industry, 14th Annual Symposium, p. 1)
