Are you having pork issues where you live?

[futuresoptions]

I guess this could be happening everywhere since this is a problem that I believe is on the rise.

I believe that I am pretty close to contacting my local grocers corporate office in reference to some issues that I am having with some of the pork products that I am purchasing from my local store.

The issue that I am having is that I believe that they are purchasing feral hogs at market and passing it along on the shelves at a premium price.

Now before you begin blasting me, let me say that I enjoy the taste of wild hog and hunt as well as process my own wild hog meat. But I do not use the wild hog meat the same way as I would regular domesticated pork that I purchase at the store.

With the feral hog problem as bad as it is in Texas, some entrepreneur types have been catching these hogs and bringing them in to sell at market.

I believe that my local grocer is guilty of purchasing these hogs and selling the meat at premium prices.

I would not have a problem with any market selling feral hog meat, but I think that it should be labeled as such and not be sold at the same price as farm raised pork.

When I purchase premium pork at the market to make a pork roast on Sunday or sit down to have and nice pork chop dinner, I do not want to be surprised when I bite into my meat and taste a wild gamey flavor. This is the third time in the past couple of months that this has happened to me.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[legion]

I live in Illinois, so there is always tons of pork in the state budget...wait....that's not what this thread is about.......

I live in Illinois, and we have lots of pork farmers and few feral hogs, so we don't see any at markets. I've 100% sure that what I purchase is farm-raised. (Or we have really fat feral hogs.)

[speedracing944]

It's possible that a farm that supplies the meat has a bad castrator on hand and you are getting boar taint in the pork.
I would think Feral hogs would be hard to handle at a processing plant- they would be a bigger pain in the butt then they'd be worth because they would attack and damage the meat on the domestic pigs. Ferals are mean.

[aigel]

I think you are imagining this. I could not tell by flavor a domestic from a young feral hog if my life depended on it. Maybe your palate is better than mine? Also, a lot of cuts would give this away - feral hogs have no hams to speak of and a very tall neck and razor back that will even make the pork chops look suspicious, with a 1-2" tall back bone sticking up!

Along the same lines as mentioned above, I also believe that it will be more $ to catch a feral hog and process it than to use a farm raised hog. Wild boar meat is always more $ than your pink supermarket pork.

All the pork at my house is feral - taken by yours truly or by friends. No question what's coming on the table here, and it is always much tastier, hormone free, free range, cruelty free ...

G

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by speedracing944

It's possible that a farm that supplies the meat has a bad castrator on hand and you are getting boar taint in the pork.

Possible, but I know for a fact that these hogs are being trapped in my area, being fed out a couple of weeks and then being taken to market. I have been asked to oversee one of the these type of operations...

Like I said, I don't have a problem with the grocer selling the feral meat, I would just like them to differentiate the two meats. I think that profits are probably the reason why nothing is being done about it. Hell, they might not even know that they are purchasing wild hogs... who knows...

[vash]

in my experience, feral hog bits are smaller than the domestic counterparts. the chops are literally half the size. dont domestic animals get much bigger than the feral animals? maybe i am confusing feral and wild?

[futuresoptions]

The feral animals that I am speaking of are domesticated pigs that have gotten loose and "gone wild". Depending on what food sources they have around them, they can pack on the weight. I have killed Russian Boar in desolate areas before that have topped out above 300lbs.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by vash

in my experience, feral hog bits are smaller than the domestic counterparts. the chops are literally half the size. dont domestic animals get much bigger than the feral animals? maybe i am confusing feral and wild?

That's my point -the bone structure is radically different. Anything but ground meat would make it pretty obviosu. Feral hog = wild pig. It is synonymous. It is possible in TX however that the hogs got away more recently, a few generations ago. In CA they generally ran away longer time ago - some of them probably as far back as the 1800s when they were still herded on the ranches to go after acorns and other wild crops. Plenty of time to revert back to the original design and of course, the domestic hog in the 1800s didn't look like a pink hog we have today either.

I am hungry now.

G

[aigel]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

The feral animals that I am speaking of are domesticated pigs that have gotten loose and "gone wild". Depending on what food sources they have around them, they can pack on the weight. I have killed Russian Boar in desolate areas before that have topped out above 300lbs.

How recent have they "gone wild"? First generation? How do they look?

They usually have gotten lose generations ago and reproduced over and over in the wild, bringing back the older characteristics: Long snout, tall shoulders, razor back, small hams, black long hair, straight tail (not curled). An extreme example from CA shown below. You could not sell any piece of bone in meat off this guy without raising suspicions.

G

[vash]

george..did you freak your neighbors out?

[futuresoptions]

I can seriously tell the difference between feral meat and farm raised. Maybe its our environment here in Texas with what the animals are eating in the wild? I do know that Javelina meat taste like feral hog meat X3 and that most of the flavor has been bred out of most farm raised pork. Most feral meat that I process will be turned into sausage, tamales, chorizo etc... If I happen to shoot a young hog (in the 80lb range) they end up tasting way less gamey and can be BBQ'd, baked etc... There is no missing that tangy wild flavor though...

[gtc]

Wouldn't trichinosis be more of a concern with wild-caught pork?

We don't have to worry about the pork up here (no wild boar afaik) but we do occasionally have some poached shellfish enter the market.

[aigel]

Vash,

My neighbors are used to strange things coming out of the back of the truck when I drive home wearing camo.

This would have been a nice hog to shoot with your bow and make sure you head for the next tree.



G

[aigel]

Originally Posted by gtc

Wouldn't trichinosis be more of a concern with wild-caught pork?

Absolutely. One can test for trichinosis easily though in a meat processing plant set up.

Definitely always cook your pork well done - doesn't matter if it is domestic or wild. No pink pork chops for me (seems to be all the rage in fufu restaurants these days).

G