Marinade injection of pork as a possible technological strategy to reduce boar taint: Response and attitude of the consumer.

Sensory evaluation by consumers allows validation of a solution for the food industry to overcome boar taint and market entire male pork with high levels of boar taint considered "unfit for human consumption". One possible technological strategy for improvement is the injection marination of entire male pork to help minimise the impact of boar taint and improve its marketability. The responses of 120 regular pork consumers, to entire males with high levels of boar taint and castrated pork, both injection-marinated, were evaluated. The results showed a similar response between entire and castrated male pork regardless of sex, and the detection of unpleasant odours and flavours (as farm/animal), thus offering a new alternative to the pork sector to mask the boar taint and revalue this pork. However, it was observed that consumer information on castration and animal welfare of entire male pork is scarce, and it is important to increase their knowledge so that they can place a value on this technological strategy with entire male pork and thus increase their purchase intention.

Influence of Dietary Lipid Source Supplementation on Milk and Fresh Cheese from Murciano-Granadina Goats.

This study analyzes the influence of the incorporation of flaked linseed and fish oil in the diet on the resulting milk and cheese. Three dietary treatments were assayed in 350 milking Murciano-Granadina multiparous goats in full-lactation: a control diet and two experimental diets, one including flaked linseed (FL) at 3.88% of dry matter, and the other containing salmon oil (SO) at 2.64% of dry matter for three periods of 21 d. None of the dietary treatments affected the daily milk yield, cheese yield, or the physicochemical parameters of the milk and cheese. Regarding the fatty acid profile (FA), the milk and cheese from animals whose diets were supplemented with SO had a higher percentage of fatty acids than those obtained with the FL-supplemented diet, except for C18:0, C18:1, C18:2 n-6, trans-9, trans-12 C18:2, cis-9, trans-11 C18:2, C18:3, and C19:0, which reached their highest levels in milk obtained with the diet supplemented with FL. The decrease in the percentage of C16:0 was greater in the milk derived from the FL diet than from the SO diet. The FL-supplemented diet improved the nutritional value of milk due to a reduction in saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and increases in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). The decrease in n-6/n-3 in the observed milk was more pronounced with the FL diet. No differences in the sensory profile were found for the milk and cheese derived from the different dietary treatments. Dietary n-3 treatments modified the fatty acid profile without making any sensory difference to milk and fresh cheese, accompanied by marginal modifications to the physicochemical profile. We conclude that dietary supplementation with flaked linseed or fish oil produces milk and cheese from Murciano-Granadina goats with a higher nutritional quality without modifying the sensory profile of the corresponding products obtained from animals that were fed a routine diet.

Polypharmacy in Elderly Patients: A Three-year Longitudinal Analysis in Primary Care Settings of Aragón, Spain.

Background: Challenges of polypharmacy and the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in older patients require further investigation. This retrospective study analyzed the progression of polypharmacy and anticholinergic burden in older patients in a primary care setting before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This 3-year cross-sectional study (2019, 2020, and 2021) comprised a dynamic cohort of individuals aged ≥75 years, who attended the Arrabal Primary Care Center in Zaragoza, Spain. Older patients with polypharmacy (≥5 medications) were identified according to their electronic health records. We collected demographic and clinical data, including medication prescriptions, diagnoses, and anticholinergic risks, and performed descriptive and statistical analyses. Results: This study included a total of 1,928 patients with a mean age of 83.52 (SD: 0.30) years. Over the 3-year study period, the mean number of medications prescribed increased, from 9.4 in 2019 to 10.4 in 2021. The prevalence of excessive polypharmacy (≥10 medications) increased from 39% in 2019 to 45% in 2021. The most commonly prescribed drugs were anilides, proton pump inhibitors, benzodiazepine derivatives, and platelet aggregation inhibitors. Women had a higher prevalence of illnesses and anticholinergic drug prescriptions than men. Conclusion: The results of this study highlighted an upward trend in polypharmacy and excessive polypharmacy among older patients in primary care settings. Future research should focus on optimizing medication management and deprescribing strategies and minimizing the adverse effects of polypharmacy in this population.

Consumer perception of entire male pork coated with spiced edible films as a new product to mask boar taint.

Pork production has undergone a shift towards the rearing of entire male pigs, however, its meat might carry with the presence of boar taint and it would be considered "unfit for human consumption". To offer a new alternative to the pork sector tailored to the needs of consumers, a viable option would be the use of edible spiced gelatin films to help minimize boar taint and improve its marketability. The responses of 120 regular meat consumers to entire pork with high levels of boar taint and castrated pork free of boar taint, both coated with spiced gelatin films were evaluated. They showed a similar response between entire and castrated male pork coated with spiced films, regardless of whether consumers usually detected unpleasant odours (as farm/animal) when consuming pork or not. Therefore, the new spiced films offer a new range of products to consumers as they contribute to the improvement of the sensory quality of entire male pork, especially among consumers who tend to buy new products.

Enriched Pea Protein Texturing: Physicochemical Characteristics and Application as a Substitute for Meat in Hamburgers.

There is currently a growing trend towards the consumption of vegetable protein, even if it shows some deficiencies in essential amino acids. It has been driven by consumer passion for health and wellness, environmental sustainability, animal welfare and the flexitarian lifestyle. However, the formulation of plant protein food analogues to meat products is complicated by the technological properties of isolated plant protein. One of the processes used to improve these properties is the texturisation of the protein by extrusion, as well as the use of other plant materials that can enrich the formulation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of pea protein (PP) enriched with lucerne (L), spinach (S) and Chlorella (C) in powdered and texturised forms on the physicochemical properties and extrusion parameters, and to evaluate its technological and sensory quality as a meat analogue in vegetal hamburgers. Texturisation reduced the number of soluble components released, thus reducing the molecular degradation in extruded material. The texturised samples were significantly (p < 0.05) less hygroscopic than the non-textured samples. Once the properties of the powder and texturised had been analysed, they were used to prepare vegetal hamburgers. The addition of vegetable-enriched texturised samples with high chlorophyll content led to more intense colour changes in the vegetal hamburgers during cooking, with PP+C providing the darkest colouring, and also resulted in a final product more similar to a traditional meat hamburger, with higher overall and meat odour/flavour intensity, hardness, juiciness and chewiness, and less legume and spice odour and flavour. Overall, texturisation improved the technological properties of the enriched protein isolate, allowing for more efficient production of vegetal hamburgers.

Novel gels and films to mask boar taint in entire male pork.

Boar taint masking strategies were developed using hydrocolloids and spices to produce edible gels and films. Carrageenan (G1) and agar-agar (G2) were used for the gels and gelatin (F1) and alginate+maltodextrin (F2) for the films. The strategies were applied to both castrated (control) and entire male pork with high levels of androstenone and skatole. The samples were evaluated sensorially by a trained tasting panel through quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA). Lower hardness and chewiness of entire male pork, with high levels of boar taint compounds object of study, were found with the carrageenan gel, due to the better carrageenan gel adherence to the loin. The films showed that the gelatin strategy tended to have a certain "sweet" taste, and a higher overall masking than the alginate+maltodextrin film. In conclusion, a trained tasting panel found that gelatin film masked boar taint the most, followed by the alginate+maltodextrin film and the carrageenan-based gel.

Spanish Fuet Sausages Fat-Reduced to Diminish Boar Taint: Sensory and Technological Quality.

Reduced-fat cured sausages were evaluated as a strategy to reduce boar taint in entire male pork products with high levels of androstenone and skatole, both lipophilic. Three fuet-type sausages (two replicates each) were developed: the control (C) (60% lean, 33.69% fat), and two reduced-fat (60% lean 21.19% fat) products; R1, 6% inulin, 0.5% ß-glucan and R2, 3% inulin, 0.5% grape skin and 1% ß-glucan. All of them were prepared from entire male pork with an androstenone concentration of 6.887 µg/g and 0.520 µg/g of skatole. Significant differences (p ≤ 0.001) in the moisture content were described between the fuet R1 and the C and R2, which obtained the highest percentage. Regarding the CIELAB, the C samples had the highest L* value, while the R2 sausages were the darkest. Boar taint was reduced in both R1 and R2, with a greater reduction in R2 (p ≤ 0.000). The addition of inulin and ß-glucan in fuet R1 provided a similar technological and sensory profile to C. However, both strategies provided a reduction of sexual odour, which was higher when grape skins were included. In addition, R2 gave a characteristic sausage with more odour and flavour, dark colour and overall rating than C and R1.

Use of Mediterranean By-Products to Produce Entire Male Large White Pig: Meat and Fat Quality.

A total of 70 male growing non-castrated pigs (Large White), with a 23.07 ± 2.87 kg average body weight (BW), were randomly allocated to three treatments in a 103 day trial: a CONTROL diet and two experimental diets, ALLIUM (5 g/kg of Allium spp. extract) and OLIVE (100 g/kg of olive pulp). Animals were slaughtered at 115 kg live body weight. Meat and fat quality were analyzed. Animals fed ALLIUM and OLIVE had higher water holding capacity (WHC) than those fed the control diet. No significant differences were observed between groups for cooking loss, drip losses and color CIELab. No antioxidant effect was observed on an oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) test. Animals fed OLIVE presented a more unsaturated fatty acid profile than CONTROL and ALLIUM. Meat from ALLIUM group and OLIVE showed her values of brightness and meat odor than CONTROL. Mean scores of sensory analyses (color, odor, flavor and juiciness) of cooked samples were similar for the three treatments, with the meat samples from the ALLIUM and OLIVE treatments being less hard. Consumers did not reflect a preference for any of the treatments. Both by-products could be used for pork production.

Effects of Dietary Rosemary Extract Supplementation on Pork Quality of Chato Murciano Breed during Storage.

(1) Background: The effect of Rosmarinus officinalis L. dietary supplementation on the pork meat quality of the Chato Murciano breed of pigs was evaluated during 21 days of storage. (2) Methods: Twenty-one castrated male pigs were divided into two groups. One group was fed a control diet (group C), and the other group consumed the same diet plus a 1000 ppm supplement of deodorized rosemary extract (group R). (3) Results: While the inclusion of rosemary extract in the pig diet did not produce notable changes in the technological parameters analysed in the meat, the lower microbiological count obtained in meat pointed to the antimicrobial effect of the extract. The storage time had a significant effect on all the parameters studied in both groups (C and R). Thus, lipid oxidation increased and the colour of the meat deteriorated, at the same time as the microbial counts and the deterioration of the sensory attributes increased. (4) Conclusions: Therefore, a certain antimicrobial effect of rosemary was observed in the meat of Chato Murciano.

Chemical analysis and sensory evaluation of honey produced by honeybee colonies fed with different sugar pastes.

Supplemental feeding of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies is essential for colony buildup. Honey samples obtained from feeding honey bee colonies with different commercial sugars, including sugar paste, sugar paste + vitamins +amino acids, and sugar paste + vitamins +protein as pollen substitute, were studied to determine the effects of feeding bees on the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of honey, compared with the honey produced by a control group (no supplemental feeding). Analyzed honey samples from the different groups were in accordance with the criteria described in Council directive 2001/110/CE, 2002. Elsewhere, significant differences (p > .05) were detected in color, free acidity, diastase activity, hydroxymethylfurfural, sugar profile, and conductivity between all honey. In terms of mineral content, the honey from hives faded with sugar paste + vitamins +protein and control group had higher values for Na, Mg, P, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn. Related to sensory analyses, no differences in flavor and basic taste were found in all analyzed honey (p > .05) independently the type of feeding. For the visual attributes, only differences were found for the color. Supplementary feeding with different sugar pastes and proteins does not affect the physicochemical characteristics of honey. For the sensory analyses, control sample presented significant differences only for color and chemical odor attributes compared with honey from bees receiving supplementation.

Fat Replacement by Vegetal Fibres to Improve the Quality of Sausages Elaborated with Non-Castrated Male Pork.

Based on the need to find alternatives for the use of meat from non-castrated male pigs that contains high levels of androstenone and skatole, the production of meat products (raw and Frankfurt sausages) with reduced fat content was proposed, as these compounds are lipophilic. For this purpose, three batches of each product (total six) were produced. These included a control batch (1); normal fat content and two fat-reduced batches, where (2) fat was replaced with inulin and ß-glucan, or (3) fat was replaced with inulin and ß-glucan in addition to a skin grape by-product. These groups used meat from non-castrated male pigs that contained 6.25 µg/g androstenone and 0.4451 µg/g skatole. In general, fat-reduced sausages exhibited less brightness than did the controls. The texture results in Frankfurt were similar to those of the control, while Spanish sausage supplemented with grape skin exhibited reduced hardness. Both strategies resulted in a reduction in boar taint, and this reduction was up to 87.3% in raw sausages with grape by-products. Fat reduction could provide an interesting strategy to allow for the use of tainted meat from non-castrated male pigs.

The Use of Pork from Entire Male and Immunocastrated Pigs for Meat Products-An Overview with Recommendations.

Due to the strong public initiative in Europe and increased regulator focus to mitigate pain, surgical castration of pigs is being gradually abandoned, while the importance of other sex categories like entire males (EM) and immunocastrates (IC) increases. Although beneficial for animal welfare and economics, their use also brings forward several quality problems. Besides the occurrence of boar taint in EM, these include excessive carcass leanness, softer fat, meat color and pH deviations, inferior water holding capacity and increased meat toughness. In this paper, the raw material differences between the male sex categories and their influence on product quality are reviewed, and possible solutions are presented. Using EM for dried or thermally processed products may result in lower processing yields and inferior sensory quality, which may partially be prevented by applying specific processing adaptations. Immunocastration is a viable solution, especially when prolonging the vaccination to slaughter interval. Low to medium levels of boar taint can be effectively managed in most of the meat products, applying procedures like cooking, microbial inoculation or masking (by spices and especially smoking), while highly tainted material can be valorized only by combining various methods and/or with dilution of the tainted meat.

Sensory perception of meat from entire male pigs processed by different heating methods.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of androstenone in pork from entire male pigs with different androstenone levels (High≥2mgkg-1; Medium 0.5-0.7mgkg-1) applying four different heating methods (vacuum, grill, oven and frying). Androstenone (AND) perception was analysed during and after cooking by a trained panel. During cooking, the highest score for AND odour (greatest perception) was obtained with the grill and vacuum, while frying was the best option for reducing its perception, which was judged to be imperceptible for androstenone medium level (P<0.05). In cooked samples, there were level, heating method and its interaction effects for AND odour and flavour, meat flavour, juiciness and hardness (P<0.05). The samples treated by vacuum and frying had a proper texture profile. However the frying method provided the lowest score in AND perception, making it the best option for reducing both AND odour and flavour. In short, the use of different heating methods strongly affected AND perception.