Effects of Added Boar Taint Substances (Skatole and Androstenone) on the Sensory Quality of Pork

Meat samples with known levels of androstenone and skatole were used for sensory evaluation by trained panel and were characterized with an AlphaMOS Fox 4000 electronic nose. In case of skatole women tended to be more sensitive than men. In contrast, for androstenone the sensitivity was independent of sex. Results obtained with PanelCheck V.1.3.2. soft ware show that the panellists were more sensitive to the samples with both substances, than the samples with only androstenone or skatole. Discriminant Factor Analysis (DFA) model classification based on electronic nose sensory data shows 100% correct classification of the samples with only androstenone and only skatole. With using of all samples except control samples in development of discriminant analysis (DF) model, three groups were classified with 80% success: only androstenone, only skatole and the different combination of androstenone and skatole levels. Groups with slight or definite odour were classified successfully with discriminant analysis based on data obtained with two characteristic sensors (81.3% in cross validation). The preliminary results reported in this paper show that measurements of compounds with an AlphaMOS device might be a useful technique for boar taint evaluation