Influence of the time of capture on lipid content of the meagre produced in aquaculture

Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar - Instituto Superior de Agronomia - UL

Lately the consumers have been more concerned with their health and well-being, and consequently, with their diet. Trends for the consumption of fishery products had increased, and as a result, aquaculture has become increasingly more important in this context. The meagre (Argyrosomus regius) is one of the largest Sciaenidae. The meagre is a fish with excellent biological characteristics for aquaculture, such as tolerance to a wide range salinity and high commercial value. The muscle quality is considered very good, with high protein content and low fat content. The present work has as a goal to study the impact of the season of capture in the quality of the meagre, namely the lipid fractions (the total lipids content, the lipids classes, and the fatty acids profile). Samples from November and April were analyzed. This analysis found that the meagre is a low fat fish. The chemical composition of the meagre presents some seasonality, the lipids fractions being the composition that varies the most along the year. The values of lipid content (8.6%), EPA (3.3%), and omega3/omega6 (1.1%) were significantly higher in autumn. In April the samples had more omega3 fatty acids, like the DHA (10.3%), and the omega-6, in particular LA (19.3%). It is therefore concluded that the meagre muscle in the autumn has a correlation with the feed