Meat Science 129 (2017) 50–53

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Meat Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci

Sensory characteristics of meat and meat products from entire male pigs
M Dolores Garrido a,⁎, Macarena Egea a, M Belén Linares a, Francesc Borrisser-Pairó b, Begoña Rubio c,
Ceferina Viera c, Beatriz Martínez c
a
Department of Food Science and Technology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Murcia, Espinardo 30071, Murcia, Spain
b
IRTA-Monells, Product Quality Program, Finca Camps i Armet, E-17121 Monells, Girona, Spain
c
Estación Tecnológica de la Carne, Instituto Tecnológico Agrario, Junta de Castilla y León, Guijuelo 37770, Spain.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The surgical castration of male piglets has traditionally been practised to prevent the development of boar taint in
Received 25 July 2016 pork meat, but European rules aim to end this practice on a voluntary basis. This study represents a sensory char-
Received in revised form 5 December 2016 acterization of the meat and meat products from entire male pigs. Three levels of androstenone concentration in
Accepted 13 February 2017
fat were compared: low, 0–0.3 mg kg−1; medium, 0.4–0.9 μg kg−1 and high, 1–2.75 μg kg−1. The use of meat
Available online 14 February 2017
from entire males in meat products lowered the perception of boar taint compared with fresh meat but was in-
Keywords:
sufficient to totally mask it. Androstenone levels seem to influence the intramuscular fat content and hence, on
Boar taint texture. The perception of boar taint in meat products depends on androstenone concentration as well as on
Sensory the characteristics of the product. It is necessary to develop additional strategies to totally mask androstenone
Meat perception in meat and meat products.
Sausage © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Androstenone

1. Introduction
The castration of male piglets is a common practice to reduce boar
taint while its other effects include reducing the fat proportion of car-
casses and reducing aggressive and sexual behaviour (Corral, Salvador,
& Flores, 2016). Boar taint is an unpleasant odour and flavour in the
meat of entire male pigs, mainly caused by the presence of
androstenone (AND) and skatole in fat tissue (Borrisser-Pairó et al.,
2016). Nowadays there is a growing concern about the negative effect
of the surgical castration of pigs, particularly when practised without
anaesthesia. Therefore, EU is committed to voluntarily ending the prac-
tice of surgically castrating pigs in Europe by January 2018. However,
the industry fears that an increase in the production of entire males
would result in more tainted carcasses and in more tainted meat
(Panella-Riera et al., 2016).
Several studies have evaluated consumer acceptability of meat from
male pigs and its relation with androstenone and skatole levels. The lit-
erature suggests that the negative impact of boar taint in consumer ac-
ceptability would be less in processed pork than in fresh meat since
processing may decrease the negative perception of androstenone and
skatole (Corral et al., 2016). It is known that the main factors influencing
the perception of boar taint in meat and meat products are the
androstenone concentration as well as the type of processing. As both
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mgarrido@um.es (M. Dolores Garrido).
substances are volatile, their concentrations are reduced when the
products are heated during cooking or processing (Bañón, Costa, Gil, &
Garrido, 2003; Corral et al., 2016). Consumption conditions might also
influence boar taint perception, since boar taint is easily detectable dur-
ing hot consumption (Corral et al., 2016). Androstenone concentration
is also important; for example, Meier-Dinkel, Sharifi, Frienden, Tholen,
Fischer and Mörlein (2013) found that dry sausages elaborated with a
lower androstenone concentration were the most liked by a consumer
panel. The aim of this research was to study the effect of AND concentra-
tion on the sensory attributes of different types of product.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Experimental design. Animals and meat samples
Three products were used in this research: fresh loin, dry-cured sau-
sages (Spanish chorizo) and cooked sausages (frankfurter). The study
used the same animals as those described in Borrisser-Pairó et al.
(2017), so that the carcasses contained different levels of AND. Meat
from pigs with b0.1 mg kg−1 skatole was classified, according to the
AND concentration, as low, 0–0.3 mg kg−1; medium 0.4–0.9 μg kg−1
and high 1–2.75 μg kg−1. Fresh meat samples of Longissimus thoracis
et lumborum muscles were dissected 24 h post-mortem. Loins were
then frozen and stored at − 18 °C. Meat and fat from these animals
were used to elaborate chorizo and frankfurter sausages with the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2017.02.011
0309-1740/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Dolores Garrido et al. / Meat Science 129 (2017) 50–53
three AND levels following procedures described in Martínez et al.
(2014, 2016).
2.2. Samples preparation
The loin samples were prepared following Egea et al. (2014). The
loins were thawed at 4 °C for 24 h before assessment. A double-sided
grill (Media Liscia; Silanos Lavastoviglie Industriali, Pioltello, Italy) was
pre-heated at 170 °C for 5 min, and the samples were cooked, turning
them every two minutes, until the internal temperature reached 72 °C
(portable T200 thermometer; Digitron Instrumentation Ltd., Hertford,
U.K.). The samples were trimmed of any external connective tissue
and cut into 2 × 2 cm pieces and then wrapped in aluminium foil
coded with a random three digit number and stored in a sand bath at
60 °C until tasting. The chorizos sausages were sliced (0.4 mm), and
two slices of each were put in a Petri plate (90 × 14 mm) 2 h before
each session. Samples were served at room temperature (23 °C). The
frankfurter were sliced (10 mm) and, two slices of each level were put
in a glass Petri plate (50 × 14 mm), heated in a microwave oven (4 s,
800 W) and immediately served to the panellists. Sample presentation
was balanced to account for order and carryover effects (Macfie,
Bratchell, Greehoff, & Vallis, 1989). Mineral water and unsalted bread
were provided for mouth rinsing between samples.
2.3. Sensory analyses
The panel consisted of ten panellists (two men and eight women,
24–55 years) with a long experience in sensory profiling in meat and
meat products. The panellists were all sensitive to androstenone and
skatole in their pure form and had participated in training (a total of
45 sessions) for the sensory evaluation of meat and meat products
from entire male pigs (Garrido et al., 2016).
Sensory analysis was carried out according to ISO 4121 (2003) as fol-
lows. Panellists were asked to sniff and taste the samples, and evaluated
the attributes of overall and AND odour and flavour. Hardness, juiciness
and chewiness were evaluated only for loin and chorizo sausages. All
descriptors were evaluated on an unstructured 10 cm line (0 = “not
perceivable”; 10 = “extremely perceivable”). Panellists made the sen-
sory analysis individually and evaluated six coded samples in each ses-
sion to avoid fatigue. Finally, there was three levels of AND and three
products, making nine sample groups. Panellists tested six samples
from each group, making fifty-four samples in total.
2.4. Fat content
To investigate the influence of product composition in sensory per-
ception, the fat content was analyzed following the procedures AOAC
(2006).
2.5. Statistical analyses
A General Linear Model (GLM) was carried out to evaluate the effect
of the different AND concentrations, type of product and their interac-
tion. A principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to variables
to obtain a multidimensional view of their relationship. Statistical anal-
yses were performed using Minitab 15.0.
3. Results
The effect of product type and androstenone level on the different
sensory parameters evaluated is summarized in Table 1. A significant in-
teraction between product and androstenone level was obtained for all
sensory parameters, except juiciness. Sensory perception in the studied
products depended not only on the concentration of androstenone, but
also on the interactions with other components associated with the par-
ticular characteristics of each product. The fat content for loin was: 1.98,
51
1.3 and 0.59%; for chorizo: 48.3, 39 and 39% and for frankfurter: 34.5%;
29.7%, and 29.25% (low, medium and high AND levels, respectively).
Fig. 1 shows the projection of the first two principal components of
meat, chorizo and frankfurter. The plot of the two principal components
explained 79, 62 and 80% of the total variance in loin, chorizo and frank-
furt respectively. Androstenone odour and flavour had a negative load-
ing on component 1, whereas overall odour and flavour had a positive
loading on this component. According to the PCA of the odour and fla-
vour data, the samples were distributed: samples with a high AND
level grouped together on the left side while medium and low levels
grouped on the right. Texture was evaluated only in the loin and chorizo
samples. The second component was characterized by the fat content,
juiciness and hardness, the last parameter having in an opposite direc-
tion to the others. In frankfurt samples this component was only deter-
mined by fat by gathering three different groups.
4. Discussion
Overall odour and flavour were lower and androstenone odour and
flavour higher in samples with high levels of androstenone. For medium
androstenone levels, androstenone odour and flavour were only per-
ceived in loin samples. Similar results were obtained by Tørngren,
Kristensen, and Claudi-Magnussen (2012), who found that the
manufacturing process did not totally mask boar taint, particularly in
meat products from pigs with high levels of androstenone. In cooked
sausages, Martínez et al. (2016) considered that AND odour in frank-
furters elaborated with entire male meat were low taking into account
that they had an androstenone content close to 1 μg/g fat. The authors
suggested that these low values could be related with compounds
formed during cooking through Maillard reactions (responsible for
meat cooked odour and flavour), which may also react with other
meat components, masking the AND perception in processed products.
In this sense, Bañón et al. (2003) suggested that during cooking boar
taint compounds may suffer a certain degree of oxidation or interaction
with other molecules involved in aroma and taste.
It was observed that meat and chorizo samples with high
androstenone concentrations had higher hardness levels, and a lower
fat content and juiciness value than the equivalent samples from ani-
mals with a low androstenone content. Texture attributes were not an-
alyzed in frankfurters since the emulsification process and additives
added lead to the batches being very similar. The loins from entire
male pigs had higher scores for hardness, perhaps due to the lower in-
tramuscular fat content compared with those from castrated animals
(Pauly et al., 2010, Coker, West, Brendemuhl, Johnson, & Stelzleni,
2009). Castration increases intramuscular fattening of the meat
(Gispert et al., 2010). Other studies found that the meat from castrated
pigs was juicier and tenderer than meat from entire males, for which a
low degree of fat infiltration was described (Pauly et al., 2010, Bañón
et al., 2003). The increase in hardness of chorizo sausages made from
entire males could be due to higher weight losses in the cured sausages
(40.62; 38.79 and 36.40% for high, medium and low sausages respec-
tively). Similar results were obtained by Corral et al. (2016) in dry
Table 1
GLM of product (loin, chorizo and Frankfurt), androstenone (AND) concentration (Low, 0–
0.03 mg kg−1; medium 0.4–0.9 μg kg−1 and high 1–2.75 μg kg−1 androstenone in fat) and
product × AND concentration interaction.
Attribute Product AND concentration Product × AND concentration
Overall odour *** *** ***
AND odour *** *** ***
Overall flavour *** *** **
AND flavour *** *** ***
Juiciness NS *** NS
Hardness * *** ***
Fat content (%) *** *** ***
NS: P N 0.05; *: P b 0.05; **: P b 0.01; ***: P b 0.001.
52 M. Dolores Garrido et al. / Meat Science 129 (2017) 50–53

Fig. 1. Principal component analysis: score plot for classification of samples on first two principal components (left) and loading plot of different attributes (right) in a: Loin, b: chorizo; c:
Frankfurter. Low, 0–0.03 mg kg−1; medium 0.4–0.9 μg kg−1 and high 1–2.75 μg kg−1 androstenone in fat.

cured sausages elaborated with meat from entire male pigs. A higher intramuscular fat content of meat from entire male pigs should be
water and protein and less fat contents in entire male muscle compared taken into account for the final quality of meat products.
with gilts and castrated males has also been reported in other studies – a
characteristic which may need to be taken into account during the pro-
Acknowledgements
duction of processed meat products (Babol and Squires, 1995).

This study was financially supported by INIA, Spain and European

Union (FEDER). RTA-2011-00027-C02-01.
5. 4. Conclusion

Androstenone level and the type of product affected the fat content
and androstenone and texture perception. Meat from entire male pigs
with a medium level of androstenone could be used to elaborate meat
products. However more studies are needed to enable masking AND
odour and flavour in meat with high levels of androstenone. The
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