Location: Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research
2020 Annual Report
Objectives
Determine the effects of intensive aeration production systems parameters on fillet flavor and texture.
Approach
Catfish is the major finfish aquaculture species produced in the United States, accounting for 51 percent of US aquaculture food fish sales in 2013. However, consumption of US grown catfish products has dwindled from its maximum of 319 million pounds in 2003 to almost half at 161 million pounds sold to consumers in 2012. This reduction in consumption of U.S. catfish has been the result of increased competition by cheaper imports. A method to counter this trend would be to produce a consistently higher quality product having less variability in its taste, texture, and color. The most pressing quality problems, as identified by the Catfish Industry, are the incidence and variability of off flavors and texture of the fillets.
Because of the increased competition and decrease in consumption of US catfish there is a need to increase production efficiencies to reduce price to consumers. Toward this goal, a number of intensive pond production systems have been developed and adopted by the catfish industry over the past 10 years. This has resulted in a wide variation of production conditions, which may induce variability in product quality. The proposed research will examine the differences and variability in texture and flavor quality of the fillets resulting from the different pond management parameters for three pond production systems - conventional, split-pond, and intensively aerated. Differences found in quality attributes will assist in the refinement of catfish management decisions to produce a higher quality, more consistent product needed for increased consumer acceptance.
Progress Report
This report documents progress for Project Number 6054-43440-050-00D Improving Product Quality in Farm-Raised Catfish, which started May 2020 and continues research from Project Number 6054-43440-049-00D Improving the Product Value of Catfish. Before the FY20 Maximized Teleworking, progress was made by ARS researchers at New Orleans, Louisiana, on the previous project that was a transition to this project, consisting of the method development of fat and moisture analysis of catfish fillet samples by time domain-nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR).
Accomplishments
