The effect of skatole and androstenone on consumer response towards fresh pork from m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum and m. semimembranosus

• Skatole has a negative impact on consumer liking of pork from entire males.
• Androstenone has a smaller but still negative impact on consumer liking.
• Androstenone is particularly important for the very negative assessments.
• No significant effect was found of consumer sensitivity to androstenone in general.

Consumer liking was assessed for boneless chops (m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum) and schnitzels (m. semimembranosus) from castrates and entire male pigs with an androstenone content of up to 9.4 ppm and a skatole content of up to 0.92 ppm in the back fat. Skatole affected both odour and flavour as assessed by trained sensory panellists (P < 0.05–P < 0.001), while androstenone particularly affected flavour (P < 0.01–P < 0.001). Furthermore, the skatole compound seemed to be more important in explaining the presence of boar taint in the chops, while androstenone seemed to be more important for the schnitzels. For the chops, tenderness was the most important attribute for consumer liking independently of both the androstenone and skatole contents (P < 0.001). Furthermore, increasing contents of both androstenone (P = 0.05) and skatole (P = 0.04) resulted in a decreased liking of the chops. Skatole was the most important factor regarding consumer response towards the schnitzels (P = 0.03). The very low liking scores for both chops and schnitzels were mainly attributable to the androstenone content.