The use of smoke as a strategy for masking boar taint in sausages and bacon.

Smoke has often been recommended as a masking agent for boar taint. However, guidelines on how much smoke is necessary have not been established. We compared different smoking parameters in bacon (smoking times) and sausages (smoking times and use of liquid smoke). In streaky bacon from entire male pigs with skatole concentrations of up to 0.6 µg/g and androstenone concentrations of up to 5.8 µg/g in the neck fat, three smoking times were compared: 10, 30 and 60 min. Boar taint was partially, but not fully, masked. The longer the smoking time, the better the masking effect. In sausages from entire male pigs with an average skatole concentration of up to 0.6 µg/g and androstenone concentration of up to 3.6 µg/g (the meat part) or 2.4 µg/g (the fat part) in the neck fat, smoking for 40 and 80 min fully masked the boar taint, whereas only a minor effect was seen after 10 and 20 min smoking. Liquid smoke (0.1%) did not mask boar taint when added to sausages from entire male pigs with an average skatole concentration of 0.36 µg/g (meat) or 0.38 µg/g (fat) and androstenone concentration of 2.3 µg/g (meat) and 2.9 µg/g (fat). To effectively mask boar taint, an intense smoked flavour is therefore necessary, and the longer the smoking time, the better. In contrast, the use of liquid smoke mixed into the product was not effective in the concentrations used in the current study.

Visualization of hot flows of tall space fires in model experiments with Schlieren Photography technique.

The natural smoke exhaust system for tall spaces is more advantageous than the mechanical type of exhaust. In Taiwan, the effectiveness of natural smoke exhaust systems is inspected only by checking the vent area size. However, the air flow field in a tall space is very complicated, both at ordinary times or during fires. This study used Schlieren Photography technique, on the principle that light rays are refracted when penetrating materials of different densities, to test and simulate the dynamic measurement of hot air in tall space model. A single-mirror Schlieren system, including an 838 mm (H) × 736 mm (W) square concave mirror, as well as the focal length of 3100 mm was adopted. The experimental process of six smokeless candles were used for 1/12.5 model experiment to record the dynamic distribution and accumulation of air flow in the abovementioned space. FDS software was used to simulate various fire scenarios. The different locations of openings in some cases were studied with the maximum temperature scales of 40 and 45 °C, separately. The simulation results and experimental images showed highly similar hot air flow patterns. Schlieren Photography was proved capable of recording and visualizing the dynamic flow of hot air immediately, directly and accurately.