The impact of accelerated boning on tenderness, ageing rate and meat quality of pork longissimus muscle was investigated. Accelerated boning of eight Large White׌andrace pork carcasses at 30 min post-mortem followed by chilling at 0àresulted in tougher pork with higher drip loss and a darker surface lightness relative to conventional boning at 24 h post-mortem. The increased toughness was still observed at 4 days post-mortem, a time by which 80% of ageing generally had occurred as seen in experiment 2. The increased toughness could be attributed to cold shortening and a reduction in proteolysis