THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH QUALITY PORK IS IMPORTANT TO THE SUCCESS AND SUSTAINABILITY OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE INDUSTRIES. TENDERNESS AND WATER BINDING CAPACITY OF FRESH MEAT ARE AMONG THE MOST CRITICAL ATTRIBUTES DETERMINING CONSUMER SATISFACTION OF FRESH PORK AND THEREFORE THE VALUE OF THE PRODUCT PRODUCED. CONSUMER EATING EXPERIENCE OF PORK IS PREDOMINATELY DETERMINED BY THE PALATABILITY OF THE COOKED PRODUCT, WHICH IS LARGELY INFLUENCED BY PERCEIVED TENDERNESS. IN THE RETAIL SETTING, THERE IS SIGNIFICANT VARIATION IN TENDERNESS OF FRESH PORK PRESENTED TO CONSUMERS. IN THE US FOOD SERVICE AND EXPORT MARKET, DEFINING THE QUALITY BEFORE DELIVERY IS NECESSARY FOR INITIAL AND CONTINUED MARKET ACCESS. THEREFORE, CONTROLLING AND PREDICTING FRESH PORK QUALITY IS EXTREMELY CHALLENGING BECAUSE DESPITE YEARS OF RESEARCH, WE STILL DO NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND THE BIOLOGY OF EARLY POSTMORTEM MUSCLE THAT GOVERNS MAJOR QUALITY FEATURES, INCLUDING TENDERNESS AND WATER-HOLDING CAPACITY. THE ONLY WAY THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY AND THE FOOD INDUSTRY CAN DEVELOP RELIABLE PORK QUALITY INDICATORS IS TO UNDERSTAND FACTORS THAT REALLY DETERMINE QUALITY.USING EXPERIMENTS TO DEFINE THE PROFILE OF THE PROTEINS IN FRESH PORK, WE WILL DISCOVER NEW KNOWLEDGE TO ADVANCE THE QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY OF FRESH PORK. WE WILL COMPARE THE PROFILE OF ANTIOXIDANT AND METABOLIC PROTEIN PROFILE OF FRESH PORK LOINS OF KNOWN QUALITY DIFFERENCES, THEREBY EMPOWERING US TO IDENTIFY THE TYPES OF PROTEINS THAT ARE ROUTINELY LINKED TO VARIATIONS IN FRESH PORK QUALITY AND SENSORY VALUE. THE PROPOSED WORK IS A SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF HOW THE ANTIOXIDANT AND METABOLIC FEATURES OF THE PROTEINS IN MUSCLE THAT IMPACT THE CONVERSION OF MUSCLE INTO HIGH QUALITY FRESH PORK. THIS STUDY IS NOVEL AS IT TAKES A CAREFUL, IN DEPTH LOOK AT TWO HERETOFORE UNEXPLAINED FACTORS THAT ARE MODERATORS OF METABOLISM AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE PROCESSES THAT IMPACT MEAT QUALITY. THE OUTCOME OF THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL PROVIDE MEANS FOR FARMERS, ANIMAL SCIENTISTS, AND FOOD SCIENTISTS TO IMPROVE THE VALUE OF FRESH PORK FOR DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL MARK.