Sustainable Feeding Strategies for Pork Quality and Healthier Traditional Products

The growing demand for healthier and more sustainable meat products has encouraged the devel-opment of alternative feeding strategies that improve resource efficiency while potentially enhancing meat quality. Among these strategies, the incorporation of agro-industrial by-products into pig diets represents a promising approach to promoting circular economy principles and reducing dependence on conventional feed ingredients. This review critically examines the effects of sustainable feeding strategies, particularly those involving olive cake, grape pomace, tomato pomace, and citrus-derived by-products, on pork quality and their potential contribution to the development of healthier tradi-tional meat products. Available evidence indicates that these ingredients can be incorporated into pig diets at appropriate inclusion levels without substantially compromising animal performance, carcass characteristics, or the physicochemical and sensory properties of pork. Furthermore, certain dietary interventions may modify fatty acid composition, enhance antioxidant status, and improve oxidative stability, although responses depend on the composition of the by-product, dietary inclu-sion level, and experimental conditions. Importantly, some diet-induced modifications, particularly those affecting lipid composition, may persist after processing into traditional meat products, in-cluding dry-cured products. Nevertheless, the limited number of studies evaluating the entire pro-duction chain and the variability in reported results highlight the need for further research. An in-tegrated feed-to-food approach, combining nutritional, technological, sensory, environmental, and economic assessments, is essential to determine the practical applicability of these strategies. Over-all, sustainable feeding strategies offer opportunities to improve the nutritional characteristics of pork and traditional meat products while promoting resource efficiency and preserving their tech-nological quality, sensory acceptance, and cultural identity.