Impact of consumer's sensitivity to androstenone on acceptability of meat from entire male pigs in three European countries: France, Spain and United Kingdom

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study consumers' acceptance of pork with different levels of boar taint according to their androstenone (AND) sensitivity in France (FR, N=144), Spain (ES, N=101) and United Kingdom (UK, N=147). Samples were classified as 'females', 'detection minus' males (low levels of AND and skatole - SKA) and 'detection plus' males (high levels of AND and SKA). Globally, 22.7% of consumers were high sensitive, 28.3% middle and 49.0% low sensitive or insensitive to AND. Sixty-five percent dislike AND odour. AND disliking was lower in UK than ES and FR. The percentage of consumers that may reject tainted meat was 14.3-41.0%; the risk was lower in UK than ES and FR. The description of AND odour varied according to the degree of sensitivity of the consumers. High AND levels reduced the acceptability of boar meat; medium AND levels could even improve its acceptability compared with low levels, resulting in meat which is as positive as that from females.