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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2017
Recent studies have shown that growing pigs can perform as well on diets containing up to 300 g/kg molassed sugar beet feed (SBF), (SBF substituted for cereals) as control pigs fed a conventional cereal-based diet (Bulman et al., 1989). SBF contains high levels of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) but little or no starch. SBF NSP, unlike that of cereals, is almost totally fermented by growing pigs, the fermentation products being used to sustain growth to a similar extent as products obtained from the breakdown of cereals, when fed at levels up to 300 g/kg. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of feeding growing pigs diets containing increasing levels of NSP i.e. 0, 150, 300 or 450 g SBF/kg, on subsequent carcass and meat eating quality. The effects on meat flavour were of particular interest since reports have suggested that high levels of fermentation may result in high concentrations of skatole and tissues which would result in taint.