Breeding potential for pork belly to the novel economic trait

Pork is known as one of the preferred part of meat worldwide. Especially, the belly, known as ‘Samgyeopsal’in South Korea, has been preferred by consumers in South Korea. Pork belly contained various component muscles, intermuscular and subcutaneous fat. The high-fat belly cut (containing 50%–60% fat ratio) has a low preference in South Korea whereas, the standard belly cut (20%–40% fat ratio) of the consumer preference was different. In addition, the evaluation system focused on lean meat production, represented by loin eye area and back fat thickness. In this review, we discussed the pork belly structure, phenotypic correlation with lean meat production ability and meat quality, and genetic potential to confirm to possibility of application to pig breeding. Moreover, the confirmed possibilities considered that could be a base on the evaluation of standard for the pork belly as an economic trait.