Textural Properties of Cultured and Wild Fish Meat

Abstract

Cultured red sea bream and yellowtail did not differ in protein-N content but were higher in lipid content in their dorsal muscle, than wild red sea bream and yellowtail. In the case of wild and cultured flounder, however, no difference was seen in the lipid content. In all of the species, the color of the dorsal muscle differed very much between cultured and wild fish. The skin color of wild red sea bream was more reddish than the cultured one.
Sensory panel members preferred the wild fish to cultured ones because the texture of wild fish was more preferable than the cultured ones.
The difference in the physical properties between cultured and wild fish meat of each species could be shown quantitatively in terms of the difference of the distribution in the Sample Value obtained by discriminant analysis of six or seven measured items of physical properties as we reported previously.
The discriminant ratio was a useful tool to show the degree of the difference, that is, how the physical properties of cultured and wild fish varied. In case of raw fish meat the difference of the physical properties was the most in yellowtail, followed by red sea bream, and finally, flounder. But when we cooked the fish meat, yellowtail and red sea bream were the species in which the difference in physical properties became smaller and flounder was the species in which the difference became larger.