Consumer acceptance of minced meat patties from boars in four European countries.

A consumer study was performed in four EU countries to further clarify the acceptability of meat with boar taint. In Denmark, France, Italy and Poland, a total of 476 female consumers evaluated 8 meat patties from boars with varying levels of skatole (0.10-0.

Urinary signature of pig carcasses with boar taint by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Boar taint is an offensive odour that can occur while cooking pork or pork products and is identified in some uncastrated male pigs that have reached puberty. It is widely held that boar taint is the result of the accumulation in back fat of two malodorous compounds: androstenone and skatole. The purpose of this study is to assess a mass spectrometry-based metabolomics strategy to investigate the metabolic profile of urine samples from pig carcasses presenting low (untainted) and high (tainted) levels of androstenone and skatole in back fat.

Consumers' segmentation based on the acceptability of meat from entire male pigs with different boar taint levels in four European countries: France, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom.

Two consumer studies were conducted to know the acceptability of pork with different boar taint levels: test 1 performed in Spain (n=126) and United Kingdom (n=146), and test 2 performed in France (n=139) and Italy (n=140). Each test had 3 types of pork: 'Female meat', 'Low boar tainted meat', and a third type was 'Medium boar tainted meat' or 'High boar tainted meat'. Three main clusters were identified on the basis of 'How delicious do you find this meat?': 1-Pork lovers, 2-Boar meat lovers, 3-Reject boar tainted meat.

Effect of breed on fatty acid composition and lipogenic enzyme abundance in the subcutaneous adipose tissue of pigs.

Unlabelled: This study investigated the role of lipogenic enzyme expression in breed-specific fat deposition in pigs.

Objectives: (i) determine effect of breed on the relative abundance of the key lipogenic enzymes stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), delta-6 desaturase (Δ6D), and fatty acid synthase (FAS) in pig subcutaneous adipose tissue. (ii) Investigate breed-specific relationships between lipogenic enzyme abundance and fatty acid composition.

Effect of tasting and information on consumer opinion about pig castration.

Our research explored the relative importance of pig castration amongst other aspects of animal welfare, and the potential impact of information and sensory experiences on European Union (EU) consumers' preferences. The EU is considering a future ban on surgical pig castration by 2018 which may affect markets and consumers' preferences. We carried out an empirical study using consumer-level data obtained from questionnaires completed in a controlled environment by a total of 825 consumers.