Received: January 31st, 2021 ; Accepted: May 8th, 2021 ; Published: May 13th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] male piglets by surgical procedures without anaesthesia, with analgesia
and/or anaesthesia and, recently, immunological-chemical castration are practices to avoid
unwanted or aggressive sexual behaviour, and to prevent the development of meat boar taint. This
exploratory study aims to investigate Portuguese consumer’s awareness, beliefs and attitudes in
issues like boar taint, piglet’s castration and pork meat quality, observing possible demographic
trends. It is also intended to identify clusters of consumers with similar attitudes, crossing them
with demographic data to verify the existence of patterns in Portugal related to these issues. To
attain this objective, a consumer’s survey was performed through an online questionnaire open
for 30 days. A total of 158 respondents completed the survey. Almost a half (46%) of respondents
stated their unknowledge about boar taint. Surgical castration and its effects are topics with which
older consumers with a rural background are more familiar with, while immunological-chemical
castration is still unknown to most consumers: 65% of consumers said they were not aware of
this method, and 75% did not know whether it is an effective method for eliminating boar taint.
Hierarchical clustering followed by K-means analysis segmented consumers into three clusters
characterized according to their opinions, mainly divided by ethical and chemical-free
orientations and by a more conservative meat quality and flavour-oriented attitudes, generally
independent of prevailing demographics. In general, there were no defined opinions about the
subjects under study, due mainly to the lack of information or knowledge. Nevertheless, cluster
classification revealed differences in consumer’s opinions, especially regarding the reasons for
castration and the pain inflicted, about meat quality and the willingness to buy pork from entire
males or to pay more for this type of product
