Sensory characterization of boar taint in entire male pigs

Boar taint has been associated with the pork from entire males. Sensory pro files have been carried out in several studies showing the multidimensional property of boar taint. However, no agreement on the number and kind of de scriptors has been reached. The aim of this study was to describe the senso ry characteristics of boar taint using a modified Free Choice profiling tec hnique. The pig meat samples were selected according to their different ana lytical levels of androstenone and skatole and were sensorially evaluated i n duplicate. After selecting the discriminant descriptors for each assessor a Generalized Procrustes Analysis was carried out. Samples with the highes t analytical levels of androstenone were characterized by "urine" "sweat" " chemical" and "rancid" odor and flavor, "turpentine", "viscera", "pig/anima l" and "naphthalene" odor, and "piquant" flavor. Samples with the highest a nalytical levels of skatole were characterized by "sweat" odor and flavor, "stable", "manure" and "naphthalene" odor and "pig/animal" flavor. In gener al the results suggested that both compounds are responsible for certain se nsory defects, although the samples with a high androstenone content displa yed the majority of them.