Masking strategies to avoid the boar taint in meat products

Surgery to castrate male pigs can be substituted by the manufacture of "entire males". However, the meat of whole male animals may have an unpleasant sexual odor, i.e. - boar taint. The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate how to use masking techniques on meat that has a noticeable boar taint during the processing stage. Smoke has frequently been implicated as a method for hiding boar taint in many types of meat products. Meat items may be smoked naturally using a traditional method or artificially using liquid smoke. Another method for hiding the boar taint in meat products is the addition of spices. Strong-smelling spices, such as paprika, chili, oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint, and cinnamon, can help to mask the stench of swine taint. Also, the use of essential oils in conjunction with spices and herbal extracts helps to mask the boar taint in meat products. Moreover, some of the recent publications focused on the investigation of yeast inoculation as a method for hiding boar taint

Antibacterial Activity of Selected Essential Oils against Foodborne Pathogens and Their Application in Fresh Turkey Sausages

Essential oils (EOs) isolated from different plant materials, namely Origanum majorana L., Satureja hortensis L., and Satureja montana L. (OMEO, SHEO, and SMEO, respectively), were used in fresh turkey sausage processing. The chemical composition and in vitro antimicrobial potential of selected EOs and their mixture were determined. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against foodborne pathogens (Escherichia coli, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Listeria monocytogenes) ranged in the interval of 0.44–7.1 µL/mL. Fresh turkey sausages were produced with EOs addition and marked as follows: TOMEO—0.150 µL/g OMEO; TSHEO—0.150 µL/g SHEO; TSMEO—0.150 µL/g SMEO; TEOM—0.050 µL/g OMEO, 0.050 µL/g SHEO and 0.050 µL/g SMEO, and control (C) (without EOs). Microbiological profile and biogenic amines content in fresh turkey sausages were recorded during storage. The selected EOs and their mixture efficiently reduced bacterial growth and biogenic amines formation and accumulation. The lowest Enterobacteriaceae count and total biogenic amine (BA) concentration were determined through treatment TSHEO. The results of this study show that selected EOs could be useful in fresh turkey sausage processing in order to improve safety and shelf-life