Detection of boar taint Coen van Wagenberg Meeting , Eindhoven, the Netherlands Develoment of an inline detection method for boar taint which is applicable in daily slaughterhouse practice, to prevent pork with boar taint reaching consumers

What is boar taint?  Smelling unpleasant odour which is released from meat of boars if the meat is heated  Develops while reaching maturity  Chemical compounds ● Androstenone ● Skatole ● Indole ● p-cresole, 4-ethylphenole, 1,4-dichloorbenzeen, 4-phenyl-3-buten-2-one ● ???????

Human nose  Heating neck fat with gas burner  Line speed up to 650 boars/hour  Max half hour smelling continuously  1.5 million boars tested

Human nose ScoreDescriptionDecision 0Normal pork smellNo boar taint 1Deviant smell, but not boar taint 2Non aversive smell 3Boar taint 4Strong boar taint

Human nose: deviant odour of boars Average deviant odour 3-4% of boars Spread between farms 0-10% 405 farms with boars Per cent deviant smell Number of farms

Consumer = golden standard Boar meat samples ranked on household overall quality perception and on boar taint score with the human nose: is there a more accurate alternative? Average order of the quality perception of households of loin, belly and chops from 1 (worst) to 55 (best) Boar number

Agreement on ranking between overall quality perception consumers and order of …. Kendall’s WP Households: odour during backing loin Households: odour during backing chops Households: odour during backing belly Lab: androstenone Lab: skatole Panel: androstenone Panel: skatole Panel and Lab: androstenone Panel and Lab: skatole Kendall's coefficient can be used for assessing agreement among raters. Kendall's W ranges from 0 (no agreement) to 1 (complete agreement).

Agreement on ranking between overall quality perception consumers and order of ….... Kendall’s WP Panel: intensity taste Panel: tender Panel: fat Panel: juicy Panel: pork taste Inline human nose score Comparison currently available detection methods: HNS, lab analysis, trained panel Humane Nose Score (HNS) results in highest agreement with score by the consumer Agreement HNS with consumer higher than with laboratory analysis of androstenone and skatole Agreement HNS with consumer slightly higher than with panel results for intensity taste

Effect fatigueness on human nose score Score ranging from 0 = no smell to 4 = strong smell

Effect fatigueness on human nose score Humane Nose Score Minutes 1-15Minutes Conclusion: within 30 minutes we do not observe fatigueness on humane nose