A study of fatty acid compositions in pork meat and fat under the aspect of a healthy human diet

Abstract

Mangalita is a rustic pork breed which is mainly grown for meat and lard. Its history starts in the beginning
of the 19th century, when Mangalita populations appeared and spread in various European Countries as
Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and also Austria and Germany. Unfortunately, the breed suffered a rapid
decline by the end of World War II, becoming close to extinction in the 1970’s. In the past 20 years
conservation programs were started in countries like Hungary and Germany, and recently Romania, which
resulted in a numeric rise of the Mangalita populations. The purpose of the present paper is to analyse and
compare various studies made on the quality of meat and lard coming from this breed, under the aspect of the
fatty acid composition, respectively the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids versus saturated fatty acids. The
paper also aims to emphasize the importance of the Mangalita breed conservation, not only in the context of
ecological breeding, biodiversity and gene pool conservation, but also as a key breed in a healthier nutrition
plan, as it is the only red meat that contains a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids like Omega 3 and
Omega 6, which are essential in human nutrition and help prevent a series of diseases, among which heart
diseases and autoimmune disorders.