Physical parameters of wild boar meat quality: a review

For centuries, game meat has been an important source of proteins, vitamins and minerals in the human diet. Interest for game meat during last few decades is increasing, mainly due to lower ecological footprint and a preferred chemical composition in comparison to the meat of domestic animals. In recent years, Europe has been facing an overpopulation of wild boars, which affects the availability of game meat to a wider niche of consumers. Therefore, wild game meat is a great alternative to others red meats and it has a great advantage on the world meat market. Regarding physical parameters of wild boar meat wide range of values can be found depending on analysed muscle type, sex, age, season and/or hunting technique. In general, same as meat of other large game species, wild boar meat is darker (lower L*), more red (higher a*) and colour parameter values can highly vary depending on previously mentioned factors. pH value usually ranges between 5.5 to 5.8, but also variations are often as wild boars have different post-mortem pH decline than domestic pigs. Expected cooking loss of wild boar meat is about 30% and higher, while meat tenderness measured as Warner-Bratzler shear force is usually higher than 40 N.