5. Conclusion
A wide variety of pig production systems currently exists in
Europe. Some of them are differentiated on the basis of claims on
various dimensions of the food production: eating quality, animal
welfare, environment, local production systems, nutritional quality,
organic farming. Eating quality is of course explicitly referred
to in those systems which have specifications aiming at improving
it, but it is also often an implicit dimension for consumers, in production
systems based on other claims such as animal welfare or
organic farming.
Differentiated productions systems having a claim on eating
quality of pork are based on the use of specific breeds or genotypes,
alternative housing conditions such as indoor bedding, outdoor access
or free-range rearing, various feeding strategies like restricted
feed allowance that can be possibly followed by ad libitum during
finishing (compensatory growth response) or variations in nutritional
value (protein/energy ratio) of the diet, increased age and/
or weight at slaughter. . ..
When using ‘‘conventional” pig breeds selected for rapid growth
rate and low fatness, rearing factors (housing conditions,. . .) have
generally only limited impacts on the eating quality of pork. Therefore,
there is a real gap between the actual and the perceived quality
of pork from alternative (indoor bedding, outdoor,. . .) rearing
systems, which have in other respects some positive impacts on
animal welfare through improved living environment.