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Abstract The use of triethanolamine in the preparation of materials has been a fertile area of research during the last decades. It is used in sol‐gel synthesis because of its ability to regulate pH, act as a structure‐directing agent, and form atrane complexes with a wide variety of elements. The atranes harmonize the hydrolysis and condensation processes of inorganic species with their interaction with surfactant molecules or micelles for the obtention of homogeneous materials. This review describes the basic principles of the formation of atrane complexes and their use in material synthesis, followed by a compilation of the main examples found in the bibliography. These materials include pure and doped silicas by using micelles as porogen species (MCM‐41, SBA‐15, UVM‐7, etc.), or without using template agents (TUD‐1, UVM‐11, etc.), non‐silica oxides (Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, etc.), mesoporous phosphates and phosphonates, zeotypes (zeolites, aluminophosphates or silicoaluminophosphates, and layered double hydroxides. The atrane route shows a versatile approach for the preparation of these materials with up to three elements simultaneously. The focus of the review centers on the synthesis of the materials and the discussion of their main applications. These examples enrich with a discussion about the future perspective of the topic.

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.

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% β-glucan and R2, 3% inulin, 0.5% grape skin and 1% β-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 β-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.

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.

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.

(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.

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 β-glucan, or (3) fat was replaced with inulin and β-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 aim of this study was to determine the effect of the addition of spices (garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage or clove) on the chemical and sensory characteristics of burgers elaborated with lamb meat from different locations (L: only leg; LNB 2/3 leg + 1/3 neck and breast). Formulation type (L vs. LNB) modified the chemical composition. L burgers showed lower values of fat, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and higher moisture and polyunsaturated fatty acids content than LNB samples, with both types of burgers maintaining the nutritional indexes (P/S and n6/n3) within the recommended amounts. Nevertheless, the type of formula did not influence the sensory properties of lamb burgers. By contrast, the spice addition affected these characteristics over the period of time considered in this study. At the end of storage their global quality could be listed in the following order, from major to minor rate: Sage > Rosemary > Garlic > Thyme > Clove burgers.

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.

The use of triethanolamine in the preparation of materials has been a fertile area of research during the last decades. It is used in sol‐gel synthesis because of its ability to regulate pH, act as a structure‐directing agent, and form atrane complexes with a wide variety of elements. The atranes harmonize the hydrolysis and condensation processes of inorganic species with their interaction with surfactant molecules or micelles for the obtention of homogeneous materials. This review describes the basic principles of the formation of atrane complexes and their use in material synthesis, followed by a compilation of the main examples found in the bibliography. These materials include pure and doped silicas by using micelles as porogen species (MCM‐41, SBA‐15, UVM‐7, etc.), or without using template agents (TUD‐1, UVM‐11, etc.), non‐silica oxides (Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, etc.), mesoporous phosphates and phosphonates, zeotypes (zeolites, aluminophosphates or silicoaluminophosphates, and layered double hydroxides. The atrane route shows a versatile approach for the preparation of these materials with up to three elements simultaneously. The focus of the review centers on the synthesis of the materials and the discussion of their main applications. These examples enrich with a discussion about the future perspective of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Several studies have studied the influence of diet supplementation on goat milk quality, but the number of animals included is normally small or does not reflect real commercial conditions. Moreover, little technological and sensory input is provided. Thus, our study included 350 goats divided into three groups (one control, two supplemented with ingredients rich in n-3). Dietary n-3 treatments modify the fatty acid profile without making any sensory difference to milk and fresh cheese, accompanied by marginal modifications to the physicochemical profile. Therefore, milk obtained from animals receiving dietary supplementation can be provided to the dairy industry. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Falls are among the most common and serious adverse events for hospitalised patients. In-hospital falls pose a major medical and economic challenge for public health worldwide. Nevertheless, the issue is often addressed without regard to certain relevant variables such as the time of the fall. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the implementation of a nurse-led intervention based on the temporal patterns of falls and their aetiology on the occurrence of falls. Methods: A mixed-method research design was carried out in three phases: a) a longitudinal prospective study (audits, chronobiological analyses and implementation of a multicentre nurse-led intervention based on temporal patterns of falls); b) a retrospective study of fall records; and c) a qualitative study based on focus groups. The protocol was published in 2021. Results: A difference was observed in the number of fall records before and after the chronopreventive intervention (retrospective: 64.4% vs. 35.6%; p < 0,001). According to the interrupted series analysis, considering the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduction in falls of 2.96% (95% CI 1.70%-4.17%) was observed. The concepts of falls, the COVID-19 pandemic and the causes of non-registration have emerged as categories for qualitative analysis. Conclusions: A multicentric nurse-led program based on tailored organisational, educational and behavioural chronopreventive measures seems to lead to a reduction in the number of in-hospital falls. The findings of the present study, highlighting the implementation of chronopreventive measures, can serve as a basis for future health policies. Trial registration: The project was registered on the Clinical Trials Registry NCT04367298 (29/04/2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Regarding the European Union Recommendation on alternatives to surgical castration of pigs, it would be appropriate to search for new alternatives to commercialize the entire pig that could be affected by boar taint, as a sensory defect. The goal of this study was to evaluate if fat reduction in meat products could diminish the boar taint in dry-cured sausages with high levels of AND and SKA, and to study the technological and sensory quality by using inulin, β-glucan and grape fibre as fat substitutes in fat-reduced products. The addition of fibres in reduced-fat fuet provided a similar technological and sensory profile to the traditional, achieving a reduction of sexual odour. Thus, these alternative formulations in reduced-fat meat products could be useful to allow high boar-tainted pork a place in the market. 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% β-glucan and R2, 3% inulin, 0.5% grape skin and 1% β-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 β-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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to develop functional beef patties by the incorporation of the peel of red banana (Musa acuminata) (Chenkathali) as natural antioxidant and functional ingredient. In the study, the selected functional sources viz. red banana peel was incorporated at different levels as 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10% by weight of the emulsion, in the formulation of pre-standardized beef patties. Shelf life studies were conducted during the intervals 0th, 2nd, 4th and 6th days. Results showed that red banana peel had the ability to reduce TBARS and Tyrosine values which indicates as reduced lipid oxidation and protein degradation. Sensory evaluation indicated good acceptable patties with acceptable attributes. The sensory and physico-chemical properties, beef patties incorporated with 7.5 % red banana peel were comparable to control and it was adjudged as the optimum level for incorporation as a source of antioxidants and dietary fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein oxidation readily occurs in postmortem muscle during storage and processing. Over the past decade new analytical methods have been developed and new aspects of protein oxidation in meat have been studied, such as the reaction mechanism, and impacts on eating quality and nutritional value. It is now evident that amino acid side chains in myofibrillar proteins undergoes modifications due to oxidative stress. In turn this will lead to formation of new protein-protein cross-links in structural proteins, however, also the overall level of fixed-charge groups attached to the peptide backbones is modified. Meat texture and water-holding are important quality attributes and they are affected by the oxidation of structural proteins. Different mechanisms have been suggested to explain the oxidation-induced quality changes, focusing mainly on reduced proteolysis and formation of cross-links. This review explores the current understanding of protein oxidation in fresh meat in relation to texture and water-holding. The consequences of protein oxidation at molecular level in relation to oxidation-induced cross-linking and changes in net charges of myofibrillar proteins, and the impacts on texture and water-holding are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Consumers highly sensitive to androstenone María (AND) will probably reject meat from entire male pigs, which tends to have high levels of this hormone. To avoid this, the effect of different masking strategies (sprinkling with mixed spices or fennel, marinating and breading with garlic–parsley or curry) on the sensory parameters of pork loin chops obtained from entire animals with high levels of AND (1.0–2.9 mg kg−1 AND in fat) and castrated animals (<0.4 mg kg−1 AND in fat), both with low levels of skatole (<0.1 mg kg−1 skatole in fat) was investigated. RESULTS: The garlic–parsley breadcrumbs led to the highest reduction in the perception of AND compared with the other masking strategies used, and preserved the juiciness of the product. There was a negative correlation between AND and fat content. CONCLUSION: AND odor and flavor can be reduced in meat from entire male pigs by using suitable strategies, the best strategy being the garlic–parsley breadcrumbs. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Sustainability is a current issue that is gaining an important place in consumer choices. Natural and environment-friendly products are becoming more popular and widely accepted, so changes to production methods are needed. Local by-products offer a good way to close the circle on animal production. In this study, two by-products were used: Garlicon ST®, a supplement obtained from garlic and onion, which could improve the microbiota gut and the ingestion in pigs, and olive pulp from Mediterranean oil production, which could be a good source of nutrients for pigs. The impact of the use of both by-products on the quality of meat and fat of pigs was examined. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Chato Murciano pigs are a protected breed of great interest from a health point of view since their meat has a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). However, this could lead to technological problems that could negatively affect the quality and shelf life of this meat. Therefore, the dietary supplementation with Rosmarinus officinalis L. extract could have an impact on the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of the Chato Murciano pork and thus control its deterioration. In the present study, rosemary extract was not effective in improving the pork quality packaged under modified atmosphere over storage time, but it delayed microbial growth without affecting the sensory profile. Thus, rosemary extract could be used to enhance the shelf-life of meat by controlling microbial spoilage. (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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Traditionally, male pigs were castrated without anaesthesia or pain relief before they reached 7 days of age to avoid the production of an undesirable odour and flavour in their meat, termed "boar taint." In recent years, to improve animal welfare according to European recommendations, farmers have generally abandoned this practice, increasing the supply of non-castrated male pork in the market. Based on this, alternatives are required to improve the quality of meat and meat products derived from these animals, as these products also possess different texture characteristics that make the meat harder and less juicy due to the presence of less fat. Recently, health has become more important to consumers, and reducing the fat content in non-castrated male pig products by replacing it with vegetable fibre has been shown to represent a good strategy for masking and improving texture. 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 β-glucan, or (3) fat was replaced with inulin and β-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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Introducing alternatives to surgical castration of pigs bring welfare and economical benefits, but also reveal several quality-related issues. Most important is the presence of boar taint, but also includes low quantity and quality of fat, meat texture and color deviations in addition to inferior water binding properties, most of them negatively influencing meat product characteristics. The present paper highlights the important differences between the conventionally used surgical castrates and the most likely introduced alternatives: entire males and immunocastrates. Based on the review of the available research, the possible reasons for quality alterations are elaborated according to the type of meat product and recommendations for improving product quality or preventing boar taint perception are given. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the addition of spices (garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage or clove) on the chemical and sensory characteristics of burgers elaborated with lamb meat from different locations (L: only leg; LNB 2/3 leg + 1/3 neck and breast). Formulation type (L vs. LNB) modified the chemical composition. L burgers showed lower values of fat, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and higher moisture and polyunsaturated fatty acids content than LNB samples, with both types of burgers maintaining the nutritional indexes (P/S and n6/n3) within the recommended amounts. Nevertheless, the type of formula did not influence the sensory properties of lamb burgers. By contrast, the spice addition affected these characteristics over the period of time considered in this study. At the end of storage their global quality could be listed in the following order, from major to minor rate: Sage > Rosemary > Garlic > Thyme > Clove burgers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]