GEN-MKT-18-7897-A
Oct 17, 2019 | Blogs, Food / Beverage | 0 comments
The title says it all. Boar taint is a complex subject. For some, it’s not an issue. Others argue that it’s one of the biggest challenges to pork quality. It’s a very subjective response.
In her blog, Dr. Laura Hancox illustrates the striking difference between the reactions of men and women after sniffing 2 specific pots: one filled with skatole (3-methyl-indole), and one filled with androstenone (5α-androst-16-ene-3-one). These are the 2 compounds of boar taint.
What Hancox experienced and witnessed is consistent with several studies that found that women seem to be more sensitive to boar taint. 1,2 It’s also interesting because studies have also found that about 75% of consumers can detect and taste boar taint.3 Of those consumers, 15 -30% are unable to detect androstenone but seem able to identify skatole.4,5 Clearly, these are pretty good reasons to take boar taint more seriously.
The pork producers’ painThis is where things get controversial. In efforts to eliminate tainted pork, pork producers usually resort to piglet castration, which raises animal welfare concerns. The European Union is leading the way to seek streamlined alternative solutions to pig castration. The EU Directive 2001/93/EEC, for example, lays down the minimum standards required to protect pig welfare. France and Germany are leading the pack by outlawing the castration of piglets without anesthetic by the end of 2021.
So how does a pork producer prevent tainted boars from entering the fresh food market?
Theoretically, it’s simple: identify tainted carcasses before they are distributed. That means pork producers need to quantify both androstenone and skatole. By doing so, they can remove pigs with unacceptable levels of boar taint at the slaughter line.5
However, the industry struggles to find cost-effective, rapid, validated and standardized methods that can detect boar taint compounds.
Finding the right methodAs analytical scientists, we are always looking for cutting-edge and innovative ways to solve our problems with boar taint. Common techniques include:
Effectively monitor boar taint in 8 stepsHow about an 8-step process that takes 8 seconds per analysis? The focus is on speed and accuracy. We have partnered with slaughterhouse industry experts at Phytronix to deliver a robust, rugged and rapid analytical solution for determining boar taint in meat products.
Here are the top 3 key advantages of using a SCIEX mass spectrometer and Laser Diode Thermal Desorption (LDTD):
Download the fact sheet to find out what makes this 8-step, 8-second process so effective >
References
The Echo® MS+ system is a novel platform for Acoustic Ejection Mass Spectrometry (AEMS) and combines the speed of acoustic sampling with the selectivity of mass spectrometry. This platform has been designed for high throughput analysis of small and large molecules. The technology combines Acoustic Droplet Ejection (ADE), an Open Port Interface (OPI) and could be coupled with the SCIEX Triple Quad 6500+ system or the ZenoTOF 7600 system.
The Echo® MS+ system comprises of an open-port interface (OPI) and acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) module which could be coupled with a mass spectrometer. The mass spectrometer could either be a SCIEX Triple Quad 6500+ system or the ZenoTOF 7600 system. This non-liquid chromatography based; high-throughput screening platform enables rapid analysis of compounds at speeds of up to 1 sample/second.
The ability to consistently achieve reproducible results on many complex samples across multiple days is critical to a routine clinical laboratory. Laboratories relying on analytical instrumentation require stability and robustness to perform a variety of screening and confirmatory assays with confidence. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has become the preferred analytical method in the clinical laboratory to reliably perform clinical testing as it provides best-in-class performance and reliability for the most challenging assays. LC-MS/MS offers the required levels of sensitivity and specificity for the detection and quantitation of molecules from complex biological samples, helping laboratories deliver highly accurate data for a variety of clinically relevant analytes across a wide range of assays.
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