Contributions of fat androstenone and skatole to boar taint: I. Sensory attributes of fat and pork meat

Abstract Androstenone and skatole are considered to be the two main compounds responsible for boar taint. The aim of the present experiment was to evaluate the respective influences of fat androstenone and skatole levels on sensory properties of fat and pork meat from entire male pigs. Fat skatole levels were measured in 1609 entire male (EM), castrate (CM) and female (FE) pigs. Fat skatole levels were higher in EM than in CM or FE, with large differences between herds. Skatole levels higher than 0.25 ppm were measured in 10% of EM. Sensory evaluations of fat and cutlets were performed on a sub-sample of 74 EM and 74 CM, refered to as sEM and sCM, respectively. sEM were chosen so that 1/3 of them had skatole levels higher than 0.25 ppm. Fat androstenone content was measured in the 74 sEM. Sensory scores for odour of sEM fat and cutlets were more closely related to fat androstenone than to fat skatole levels. Sensory attributes of fat and cutlets were more favourable in sEM exhibiting low androstenone or low skatole levels than in sEM with high androstenone or high skatole levels. Still, they were significantly less acceptable than in sCM. Sorting of carcasses based on combined androstenone and skatole measurements did not provide any further improvement over sorting according to androstenone alone. It is concluded that, with the slaughter weight and genotypes used in the present study, sorting of carcasses according to fat androstenone and/or skatole levels is not sufficient for an accurate determination of untainted pork meat.