A Brussels Declaration claiming to voluntarily end surgical castration of pigs in Europe by 2018 has been signed. To ensure that boar tainted meat does not reach the consumers; validation of new methods has been initiated all over the EU. In Denmark, we have chosen to work with the so-called "hot water method" based on human nose assessment. The method set-up is simple: lard cut into (unspecified) smaller pieces are added to a 100 mL conical flask and 75 mL of boiled hot water are poured over the lard. The flask is "closed" with tinfoil and left standing for 2 min before assessment. The "hot water method" has been validated regarding the amount of lard and temperature at assessment, and it was concluded that 5 g of lard and a temperature of approx. 80°C is optimal for a valid assessment when detecting the presence of boar taint. It can further be concluded that there is no apparent decrease in assessor sensitivity during the assessment of 200 samples.
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