Pork quality links eating experience with product value. Traits such as tenderness, water-holding capacity, intramuscular fat, fatty acid profile, marbling, and color are controlled by genetic, environmental, management, and dietary factors. During the production, it is difficult to make the priorities.

In a study published in Food Research International, a team led by Prof. KONG Xiangfeng from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (ISA) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a systematic meta-analysis to clarify how genetic, regional, slaughter-related, and nutritional factors shape pork quality, providing support for the pork-quality improvement through coordinated breeding, region-adapted management, optimized slaughter decisions, and precision nutrition.

Based on data from 828 studies published between 2014 and 2024, researchers analyzed 15 pork-quality traits, including pH, cooking loss, drip loss, shear force, intramuscular fat, flavor-related amino acids, fatty acid composition, marbling, and color. Using multi-level meta-analysis and meta-regression models, they evaluated breed, muscle position, geographic region, sex, slaughter age, slaughter weight, and dietary nutrient composition.

Breed was a leading source of variation in pork quality, especially for intramuscular fat and other compositional traits. Native breeds such as Laiwu and Iberian pigs showed advantages in flavor- and fat-related traits, while commercial lines such as Duroc, Landrace, Yorkshire, and their crosses showed relatively stable physicochemical properties for large-scale production. These findings suggest that breed selection should be matched with product type, regional preference, and quality target rather than pursuing a single "best" genotype.

Besides, geographic region strongly affected water-holding capacity and color-related traits. Climate, altitude, local feed resources, rearing systems, and pre-slaughter handling might jointly regulate post-mortem muscle metabolism, moisture loss, tenderness, and meat appearance. The importance of region-specific management such as heat-stress mitigation in hot and humid areas and adapted pre-slaughter protocols in high-altitude regions was highlighted.

Moreover, production and dietary variables acted as trait-specific modifiers. Higher slaughter weight was associated with increases in flavor-related indicators, including intramuscular fat, oleic acid, and glutamic acid, but might reduce tenderness. Nutritional effects were often non-linear: mineral balance, protein level, amino acid supply, and energy density were linked with water retention, lipid deposition, fatty acid composition, and color. These patterns support precision feeding for targeted pork-quality outcomes.

"By ranking these factors in one framework, we can better match breed resources, regional management and feeding strategies with different pork-quality goals," emphasized HU Weidong from ISA, one of the first authors of this study.