Use of masking strategies to avoid the boar taint perception in chorizo: consumers' acceptability

Marinade injection of pork as a possible technological strategy to reduce boar taint: Response and attitude of the consumer

Sensory evaluation by consumers allows validation of a solution for the food industry to overcome boar taint and market entire male pork with high levels of boar taint considered "unfit for human consumption". One possible technological strategy for improvement is the injection marination of entire male pork to help minimise the impact of boar taint and improve its marketability. The responses of 120 regular pork consumers, to entire males with high levels of boar taint and castrated pork, both injection-marinated, were evaluated. The results showed a similar response between entire and castrated male pork regardless of sex, and the detection of unpleasant odours and flavours (as farm/animal), thus offering a new alternative to the pork sector to mask the boar taint and revalue this pork. However, it was observed that consumer information on castration and animal welfare of entire male pork is scarce, and it is important to increase their knowledge so that they can place a value on this technological strategy with entire male pork and thus increase their purchase intention.

The Effect of the Boar Taint Masking Strategy (Adding Dried Origanum vulgare or Allium sativum) on Sensory Characteristics

With increasing efforts to ban surgical castration, it is important to find ways to mask the level of boar taint in meat. The aim of this study was to test the possibility of masking boar taint or skatole levels by adding dried Origanum vulgare or Allium sativum and to evaluate consumer sensory preferences towards the skatole concentration in different carcass parts (longissimus lumborum; semimembranosus; neck chop and subcutaneous fat) and the masking strategy (addition of Allium sativum or Origanum vulgare). In the first experiment, the effect of the masking strategy was evaluated at three different skatole concentrations (0.069, 0.269 and 0.463 µg/g). The results showed that the samples with low and medium skatole levels were significantly different between the control group and the groups treated with Origanum vulgare or Allium sativum. In both cases, the addition of Allium sativum and Origanum vulgare had a positive effect on the parameters of abnormal odour and pleasantness of odour (p < 0.05). According to the results of the second experiment, meat samples from leaner parts, such as the neck chop semimembranosus and longissimus lumborum, not treated with Allium sativum and Origanum vulgare for masking, were significantly (p < 0.05) worse in terms of the occurrence of boar taint or abnormal odour than the masked samples. No significant differences were found between the two masking methods.

Spanish Fuet Sausages Fat-Reduced to Diminish Boar Taint: Sensory and Technological Quality

Reduced-fat cured sausages were evaluated as a strategy to reduce boar taint in entire male pork products with high levels of androstenone and skatole, both lipophilic. Three fuet-type sausages (two replicates each) were developed: the control (C) (60% lean, 33.69% fat), and two reduced-fat (60% lean 21.19% fat) products; R1, 6% inulin, 0.5% β-glucan and R2, 3% inulin, 0.5% grape skin and 1% β-glucan. All of them were prepared from entire male pork with an androstenone concentration of 6.887 µg/g and 0.520 µg/g of skatole. Significant differences (p ≤ 0.001) in the moisture content were described between the fuet R1 and the C and R2, which obtained the highest percentage. Regarding the CIELAB, the C samples had the highest L* value, while the R2 sausages were the darkest. Boar taint was reduced in both R1 and R2, with a greater reduction in R2 (p ≤ 0.000). The addition of inulin and β-glucan in fuet R1 provided a similar technological and sensory profile to C. However, both strategies provided a reduction of sexual odour, which was higher when grape skins were included. In addition, R2 gave a characteristic sausage with more odour and flavour, dark colour and overall rating than C and R1.

Consumer perception of entire male pork coated with spiced edible films as a new product to mask boar taint

Pork production has undergone a shift towards the rearing of entire male pigs, however, its meat might carry with the presence of boar taint and it would be considered "unfit for human consumption". To offer a new alternative to the pork sector tailored to the needs of consumers, a viable option would be the use of edible spiced gelatin films to help minimize boar taint and improve its marketability. The responses of 120 regular meat consumers to entire pork with high levels of boar taint and castrated pork free of boar taint, both coated with spiced gelatin films were evaluated. They showed a similar response between entire and castrated male pork coated with spiced films, regardless of whether consumers usually detected unpleasant odours (as farm/animal) when consuming pork or not. Therefore, the new spiced films offer a new range of products to consumers as they contribute to the improvement of the sensory quality of entire male pork, especially among consumers who tend to buy new products.

Sensory Characterization of Iberian Dry-Cured Loins by Using Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) Analysis and Multiple-Intake Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS)

The aim of the present work was to sensorially characterize different commercial categories of Iberian dry-cured loins (varying genetic and feeding background) using a novel dynamic sensory technique, and to explore consumers preferences applying a rapid method. The samples (green label—GL, Cebo de Campo Ibérico; red label—RL, Bellota 50% Ibérico; and black label—BL, Bellota 100%) were analyzed by (i) Check-all-that-apply (CATA) with the evaluation of an ‘Ideal’ dry-cured loin and the overall liking, and by (ii) multiple-intake Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS). The CATA results indicated that the sensory characteristics of RL samples were closer to those of the ‘Ideal’ loin. Furthermore, juiciness, marbling, cured flavor, chewiness, persistence, and brightness were selected as ‘must-have’ attributes. Juiciness cured flavor and red color were considered as drivers of liking. TDS results showed that flavor attributes presented the highest dominance rates, with saltiness being the most dominant attribute along BL sample evaluation, and with cured and paprika flavor for GL and RL samples. These sensory technique results displayed the ability to sensorily characterize dry-cured loins, providing different, complementary, and valuable information.

The Use of Pork from Entire Male and Immunocastrated Pigs for Meat Products-An Overview with Recommendations

Due to the strong public initiative in Europe and increased regulator focus to mitigate pain, surgical castration of pigs is being gradually abandoned, while the importance of other sex categories like entire males (EM) and immunocastrates (IC) increases. Although beneficial for animal welfare and economics, their use also brings forward several quality problems. Besides the occurrence of boar taint in EM, these include excessive carcass leanness, softer fat, meat color and pH deviations, inferior water holding capacity and increased meat toughness. In this paper, the raw material differences between the male sex categories and their influence on product quality are reviewed, and possible solutions are presented. Using EM for dried or thermally processed products may result in lower processing yields and inferior sensory quality, which may partially be prevented by applying specific processing adaptations. Immunocastration is a viable solution, especially when prolonging the vaccination to slaughter interval. Low to medium levels of boar taint can be effectively managed in most of the meat products, applying procedures like cooking, microbial inoculation or masking (by spices and especially smoking), while highly tainted material can be valorized only by combining various methods and/or with dilution of the tainted meat.