Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #389848
Research Project: Improving Product Quality in Farm-Raised Catfish

Location: Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research

Title: Instrumental texture differentiation of Channel (Ictalurus punctatus) and Hybrid (Channel x Blue, Ictalurus furcatus) catfish fillets

Author
item Bland, John
item Ardoin, Ryan
item Li, Carissa
item Bechtel, Peter

Submitted to: Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/22/2022
Publication Date: 6/24/2022
Citation: Bland, J.M., Ardoin, R.P., Li, C.H., Bechtel, P.J. 2022. Instrumental texture differentiation of Channel (Ictalurus punctatus) and Hybrid (Channel x Blue, Ictalurus furcatus) catfish fillets. Foods. 11(13),1875. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11131875.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11131875

Interpretive Summary: The U.S. catfish industry has recently switched from the predominant use of a channel catfish species to a hybrid catfish that is produced from male blue catfish and female channel catfish. With this change, new types of ponds have been increasingly used that help grow higher numbers of the hybrid catfish. With these changes, it must be certain that the quality of the catfish fillet does not decrease. This report examined the texture differences between channels and hybrids using instrumental methods of determining texture properties, such as firmness. It was found that the channel catfish fillets were more firm, tough and chewy than the hybrid catfish fillets. Additionally, freezing and the type of freezing was found to affect other texture attributes, such as springiness.

Technical Abstract: An analysis of instrumental texture differences between channel (Ictalurus punctatus) and hybrid (female channel x male blue, I. furcatus) catfish fillets is presented. Factors including cold-storage type (fresh, frozen, or IQF) and gender were included in the comparisons. Texture was measured at eight positions per fillet by a texture profile analysis method that provided seven texture attributes: firmness, toughness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, chewiness, resilience, and springiness, plus the thickness of the fillets (238 total). All attributes except adhesiveness were found to be statistically different (p<0.05) between channel and hybrid fillets, with channels having the highest value in each attribute. When cold-storage type was included in the analysis, channels still produced the highest attribute values, but the number of attributes differed with firmness, toughness, and chewiness most associated with the differences in the type of catfish, while the other attributes were affected by cold-storage type. Thickness was found to be a strong covariant to some of the texture attributes, especially toughness, but the determination of difference between channels and hybrids was not affected and TPA profiles provided high levels of differentiation between catfish type.