Boar: smell detection at the abattoir with significant risks

In the absence of reliable technical methods slaughter companies put on the slaughter line employee to discover the urinous-fecal sexual odor from uncastrated boars. So complaints of meat processors, retailers and consumers should be reduced to a minimum. Scientists at the Danish Meat Research Institute in Roskilde do now in the current issue of the scientific journal "meat industry" aware of some pitfalls that can affect the reliability of test results.

The authors point out, first, that a test panel within the sensor usually consists of eight people. At slaughterhouses are usually only two people in action (1).

The examiners may experience a habituation effect (1). Indeed, a study at the University of Ghent shows that a carcass, regardless of its actual odor intensity, is perceived as less odorous, if previously a strong-smelling one was judged (2).

Likewise, environmental influences can distort the qualitative and qualitative results. An evaluation of boar taint should therefore take place in an odorless environment. The scientists therefore call the test at the slaughterhouse "extremely questionable". (1)

The authors also point out that androstenone and skatole are not evenly distributed in the bacon. Investigations at the Danish Meat Research Institute show that the skatole contents differ from different locations of the carcass and have no systematics. For androstenone, comparable data were obtained. So it is probably left to chance, if the use of the blowtorch on the pig half the odor development is more or less clear. (1)

Both pig farmers and insiders in the meat industry have recently expressed concern that so-called stinky meat - ie boar meat with a sexual odor - ends up on the consumer's plate, the consumption of pork is falling and consumers prefer other meats. There are reports from both Germany and the Netherlands on pork in the shops.

Whether the decline in meat consumption observed last year can also be attributed to unpleasant-tasting pork can not be verified. The biggest decline in 2012 consumption of pork, as the Federal Statistical Office recently reported.

Sources:

(1) Lene Meinert, Chris Claudi-Magnussen and Susanne Støier Limits on the detection of boar odor FleischWirtschaft 93 (2), February 2013, S. 24 - 27

(2) Bekaert, K. Chemical and sensory detection of bone taint dissertation, University of Ghent, 2012

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Source: Roskilde [aho / lme]