Rapid evaporative ionization mass sepctrometry for high throughput screening in food analysis: The case of boar taint

ncreasing awareness on animal welfare has led to a European Treaty announcing a voluntary ban on the surgical castration of piglets by 2018. One viable alternative for the surgical castration is the raise of entire males. However, the main setback of the latter is the possible occurrence of boar taint, an off-odour caused by the release of androstenone (AEON), skatole (SK) and indole (IND) when meat of boars is heated. In order to prevent adverse consumer reactions, there is an urgent need for rapid detection methods for boar taint at the slaughter line.

In this study, rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry (REIMS) was used as a new emerging technique to develop a predictive model for accurate high-throughput identification of boar taint in pig adipose tissue, an important step towards achieving at-line classification of boar carcasses. Pig adipose tissue was sampled using the iKnife handheld sampling device, which was connected directly to a Xevo G2-XS Q-TOF mass spectrometer equipped with a REIMS source (Waters corporation, Manchester, UK). Untargeted mass spectrometric profiling in both negative and positive ionisation mode of pig neck fat samples enabled the construction of a predictive model for the classification of boar carcasses in boar taint positive or negative groups. The predictive model showed high accuracy (84%) and a very low false positive and negative rate (alpha and beta-error ≤ 5%), demonstrating the potential and applicability of this model on pig carcasses. Moreover, as the REIMS technique delivers a result within 10 seconds from sampling to result, it guarantees point-of-control analysis, which represents a major step forward in high-throughput screening of aberrant pig carcasses.