Dietary linseed oil supplemented with organic selenium improved the fatty acid nutritional profile, muscular selenium deposition, water retention, and tenderness of fresh pork

Cross-bred pigs were fed a control diet (with 0.3 ppm sodium selenite and 1.5% soybean oil) or organic selenium diets (0.3 ppm Se-Yeast with 1.5% soybean or linseed oil) to investigate nutrient supplement effects on meat quality and oxidative stability. The organic selenium diets increased muscular selenium content up to 54%, and linseed oil increased n-3 fatty acids two-fold while lowering the n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio from 13.9 to 5.9 over the selenite control diet (P < 0.05). Organic selenium yeast treatments with linseed oil reduced pork drip loss by 58–74% when compared with diets with soybean oil. Lightness of fresh pork was slightly less for organic selenium groups than inorganic (P < 0.05), but redness was mostly similar. Lipid oxidation (TBARS) and protein oxidation (sulfhydryl) during meat storage (4 °C up to 6 days) showed no appreciable difference (P > 0.05) between diets, in agreement with the lack of notable difference in endogenous antioxidant enzyme activity between these meat groups.