Practicable processing parameters of pig dehairing based on testing force and work

To determine the practicable dehairing parameters for pig processing and to provide the tech-support for scalding system design, further, to reduce processing cost and improve pork meat quality and safety, the study examined the relationship of pig hairs pulling force and work with immersed time and temperature. Hairs were extracted from pig skin with instrumental tweezers. The results general trended that as the heating time and temperature increased, the peak pulling force and the total work done decreased. The results showed that if immersion temperature was greater than 65℃, then there was no further reduction in peak pulling force beyond 4 minutes of treatment. When considering work done in removing hairs, we concluded that heating pig at 65℃ for 5 minutes was the feasible parameters to hair extraction. These results have important implication in design of scalding system.