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

Abstract

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. Additionally, in test 2, a fourth cluster was identified: 'Reject low tainted meat'. A group of 16.2-38.2% of consumers rejected meat from boars, and another group of 12.4-21.7% rated the meat with medium or high levels of boar taint better than the meat from females, identifying a niche for meat from medium and high levels of boar taint, and suggesting the need to select carcasses on the basis of boar taint.

Keywords: Acceptability; Androstenone; Boar taint; Clusters; Consumers; Skatole.