Thickness shear mode resonator sensors for the detection of androstenone in pork fat

Androstenone is a major natural contaminant in pork meat. Its presence, normally located in the fat tissues, results from the hormones productions connected to the sexual maturity of male pigs. Its presence produces an unpleasant odour, the boar taint. This odour, and flavour in cooked meat, is a strongly perceived by most of the consumers, and it reduces remarkably the quality of meat. Currently available methods, based on enzymatic tests, require long preparation and measurement time. Here a fast screening method based on the thickness shear mode resonators based chemical sensors technology is proposed to measure the presence of volatile part of androstenone from pork fat. Sensitivity and resolutions are comparable with those of human olfaction as it will be demonstrated in the paper.