Abstract:To explore the impacts of different carbon dioxide concentrations on the quality of fresh highly processed pork products, fresh processed pork tenderloin, pork belly slices, and pork rib pieces were selected as research subjects. The changing trends of color difference, shear force, total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N) value, pH value, water content, and total bacterial count (CFU) of the three products were investigated during storage under modified atmosphere packaging conditions of 70% O2/15% CO2/15% N2 or 70% O2/30% CO2. The experimental results showed that after 8 days of storage under the 70% O2/30% CO2 treatment, the TVB-N and lg CFU/g values were 14.63 mg/100 g and 5.55 for the pork tenderloin, and were 14.95 mg/100 g and 5.78 for pork belly slices. However, under the 70% O2/15% CO2/15% N2 treatment, the TVB-N and lg CFU/g values of the same pork products exceeded the national standard limits. Both treatments showed little correlation with the pork products’ water contents, and under the same modified atmosphere packaging conditions, the differences in all the indicators among the three products were insignificant. Comprehensive analysis revealed that the 70% O2/30% CO2 treatment can significantly (P<0.05) control the changes in the total bacterial count and TVB-N value, slow down the increase in pH value, and influence significantly (P<0.05) the redness value, which is more conducive to maintaining the quality of modified atmosphere highly processed pork products.