Table 3.

Physical characteristics of the different muscles of dry-cured hams obtained from pigs of different breeds and sex¹ fed on conventional (CONV) or low protein (LP) diets.

	Diet (D)				Breed (BR)				Tissue (T)2						BR × D
	CONV	LP	SEM	P	Anas	Danbred	SEM	P	BF	QF	SM	ST	SEM	P	P
pH	5.49	5.52	0.01	0.07	5.51	5.50	0.01	0.39	5.51bc	5.53c	5.50b	5.48a	0.01	<0.001	0.49
Water activity3	0.90	0.90	0.002	0.76	0.90	0.89	0.002	0.36	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.84
Colour:
Lightness (L*)	37.5	37.3	0.29	0.64	37.7	37.2	0.29	0.30	38.1c	35.6b	33.5a	42.7d	0.34	<0.001	0.37
Green-red (a*)	7.00	6.92	0.18	0.78	7.05	6.87	0.18	0.46	6.86b	8.28d	7.53c	5.18a	0.19	<0.001	0.77
Blue-yellow (b*)	8.24	8.30	0.12	0.75	8.26	8.28	0.12	0.92	7.47a	8.61b	7.02a	9.97c	0.14	<0.001	0.80
Texture:
Shear force, N	32.8	33.6	1.10	0.59	33.0	33.4	1.10	0.81	21.4a	36.2b	42.5c	32.7b	1.56	<0.001	0.22
Hardness (30%), N	20.7	19.3	1.09	0.36	19.1	21.0	1.09	0.22	26.3b	24.0b	13.6a	16.2a	1.07	<0.001	0.30
Adhesiveness, N × s	−1.73	−1.73	0.08	1.00	−1.81	−1.66	0.08	0.20	−2.00c	−1.48a	−1.84bc	−1.62ab	0.09	<0.001	0.88
Cohesiveness	0.54	0.55	0.01	0.25	0.55	0.54	0.01	0.56	0.53a	0.60b	0.53a	0.52a	0.01	<0.001	0.51
Springiness	0.73	0.73	0.01	0.81	0.73	0.73	0.01	0.81	0.74	0.72	0.72	0.72	0.01	0.34	0.10
Chewiness, N	8.42	7.92	0.52	0.50	7.76	8.58	0.52	0.27	10.6b	10.6b	5.33a	6.18a	0.54	<0.001	0.65

¹The fixed effect of sex was not significant.

²BF: Biceps femoris; QF: Quadriceps femoris; SM: Semimembranosus muscle; ST: Semitendinosus muscle.

³Measured on square samples (15 × 15 mm) taken from close to the Biceps femoris muscle.