Location: Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research
2015 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Determining the number of fish needed to be analyzed in order to detect off-flavor catfish in ponds. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service, New Orleans, Louisiana determined the number of fish that would need to be analyzed in order to detect off-flavor catfish in mixed ponds. Data was used to model the number of fish required to detect off-flavor in mixed populations containing both on and off flavor fish. A sample of 40 fish was required to detect off-flavor when the population was nearly all on-flavor (97%) and <11 fish when populations contain >20% off-flavor fish. A sample size of six fish in a mixed population was effective in identifying off-flavor occurrence in 60% of ponds having off-flavor present. Sampling more fish fewer times can more accurately identify ponds containing mixed flavor fish populations than the current sampling procedure.
2. Catfish flavor checkers workshop. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service, New Orleans, Louisiana held a catfish flavor checkers work shop on March 19, 2015 in Indianola, Mississippi. Prior to the workshop a survey of the catfish processing plant flavor checkers to learn about differences in the flavor checking processes. A survey was developed and information was gathered from most of the Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana processing plants. At this workshop, the results of the survey were discussed; and participants were presented samples to determine their perception thresholds for perceiving the most common catfish off-flavors, geosmin and methylisoborneol. This workshop provided the starting point for work on the nomenclature for catfish flavor attributes.
