Factors Affecting Fish Quality:

Focus on Farmed Salmon

Dave Robb
EWOS Innovation
 What is Fish Quality?

• Quality is many things to different people

– Consumers
– Processors
– Retailers / Food Service

• Quality includes
– Appearance
– Texture
– Eating quality
– Chemical constituents
– Food safety
– Ethical concerns
 Is Fish Quality Important?

• When demand exceeds supply, quality does not

pay extra – certification schemes may
• When demand is limiting, then quality is
important
• Quality is also important to gain consumer
confidence and repeat sales
• If quality varies too much, consumers do not
understand this and will purchase something else

• Value added processing can cover a range of

quality issues – upgrading poor quality for some
products
 Factors Affecting Fish Quality

Which aspects? • What can affect these?

• External condition – Genetics
– Shape – Freshwater husbandry
– Fins – Seawater husbandry
– Scales and skin – Nutrition
• Internal condition – Growth rates
– Fat content – Harvest
– Colour and Pigment – Storage Changes
– Gaping
– Texture • There is a lot of variation
– Bloodspotting in what happens in all of
– Eating quality these areas (nutrition is
probably the least)
– Shelf-life
 What is Flesh Quality?

Consumer Assessed Technological

• Appearance • Texture
• Eating Quality • Processability
– A lot of value added
products made with
fish
 Appearance

External
• Shape
• Cuts and bruises
• Net marks
• Fin and tail erosion
• Eye damage
• Scale loss
 Appearance

Internal
• Fat – width
• Colour
• Bloodspotting
• Haemorrhages / Bruises
• Vaccine scars
• Gaping
 Texture

• Very important indicator of freshness

• Also essential for all value added products

• Gaping – holes in the product

• Soft flesh – poor yield and rough cuts
• Fatty flesh – poor yield
Bloodspotting
Bloodspotting Challenges
 Vaccine Scars

• Melanin deposits in the muscle and viscera

• Caused by reaction to adjuvants in vaccines
 Technical Quality

• Gaping
• Soft flesh
• Gutting and filleting
• Storage stability
• Freezing
• Salting
• Smoking
Where is Flesh Quality Affected?
 Genetics

• Growth rates
• Fat
• Colour
• Muscle Fibre Number

• Tool for the future

• Need to develop with value chain
• Target strains for diets
Stock on Muscle Fibre Number and Area

Ref: Johnston et al 2000

Why is Fibre Number Important?

Ref: Johnston et al 2000

 Egg Incubation Temp

• Range of temps from 2°C to over 10°C been

used
• Found that over 8°C and sudden temp
fluctuations can cause range of deformities

• Affects muscle fibre number later in life

• Muscle fibre can be affected throughout life, but
most strongly affected at this stage

• Affects gene expression

• Higher temp, rates are faster, perhaps not giving
enough time for impact of expression
• Could explain some of the deformities observed
 Effect of Incubation Temperature

Muscle Fibre Number Visceral Deformities

8 C or 5 to 7°C Incubation Temps

50
45 From 8 to 10 oC
40
35 From 8 to 12 oC
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
110 do 220 do 330 do hatching

Temperature
increased at:
 Farm Site

• Variation between sites – on top of stocks

• Probably due to environmental differences
• Well shown by company monitoring program

Colour by Site
Fat By Site

30.0
30

25 28.0

20
26.0
Fat Mean DSM
Content 15 SalmoFan
(%)
24.0
10

22.0
5

0 20.0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Live Weight (g) Live Weight (g)
ATS: Fat content by Live Weight
Fat in Salmon Fillet
 Gaping / Soft Texture

• Fish are soft generally compare to meat

• Low amount of collagen, etc
• More likely to gape
• Working with customers to develop diets to
reduce gaping

• Fixer diet to reduce severe gaping

 EWOS Trial Results

• Effect of increased dietary oil on gaping

• Low Oil showed more gaping than High Oil
• But lots of variation within treatments

40 Low Oil 40 High Oil

30 30
n 20 20
10 10
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Gaping Score
 Diet on Gaping

Gaping Score Gaping Score

TGC > 0 TGC > 1.5

Dietary Treatment Dietary Treatment

Starvation
 Fat Content

Body composition remains unaffected

18

Muscle 12
Lipid
(%) 6

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Days Starved Einen et al 1998a
Harvest
 Harvest Requirements

• Need a system which keeps the fish calm throughout –

stress and activity at any stage will downgrade
– Trained staff
– Good systems – keep fish activity low and kill fish
rapidly, without stress (good welfare)
– Monitoring and feedback

• Activity results in muscle lactic acid build up

– Decreased time to rigor onset
– Firmer rigor – greater rigor force on muscle
– Change in muscle protein conformation
– Loss of colour and translucency
– Loss of texture and muscle strength
 Carbon Dioxide (4) Bleeding (5)
Transport to
Processing Gutting
Legend Brailling (2) Harvest Plant
Numbered critical control Vessel Bleeding (4)
(1) point for fish stress and activity. (3)
Note: more control points does
not necessarily mean a worse Transport to
Percussive Stunning (4) Bleeding (5) Processing Gutting
system. Plant

Point where fish are stunned

or die if procedure carried AQUI-S anaesthesia (5) Bleeding (6)
Transport to
out correctly Processing Gutting
Harvest Plant
Vessel Carbon Dioxide (5) Bleeding (6)
Point where fish die if
(4)
procedure not carried out
Transport to
correctly Percussive Stunning (5) Bleeding (6) Processing Gutting
Crowding in Plant
AQUI-S or
Clove Oil
(1)
Live Chilling (11) Bleeding (12) Gutting

Holding Cage Removed Carbon Dioxide (11) Bleeding (12) Gutting

Discharge Crowded Into
at Slaughtery from Cage Slaughtery
(6) (8)
(7) (9) (10) Electrical Stunning (11) Bleeding (12) Gutting

Percussive Stunning (11) Bleeding (12) Gutting

Live Chilling (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting

Brailling
Transport Removed from Carbon Dioxide (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting
Vacuum Pump Into
Air lift to Slaughtery Well Boat Slaughtery
Venturi Pump (5) (6) (7) Electrical Stunning (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting
Withdrawl
of Feed
Crowding Percussive Stunning (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting
Well Boat
(1)
Ambient
Temperature
(4)
Live Chilling (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting

Live Fish Fish Removal Held in Well Removed from Carbon Dioxide (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting
Fish Ready Into
in the Main Crowded from cage Brailling Boat Overnight Well Boat
for Harvest Slaughtery
Growing Cage (2) (3) Vacuum Pump (6) (7) (8) Electrical Stunning (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting
Air lift
Venturi Pump
Siphoning Percussive Stunning (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting
Well Boat
Crowding with
and Grading Chilling
(1) (4)
Withdrawl Live Chilling (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting
of Medication
Transport Removed from Carbon Dioxide (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting
Into
to Slaughtery Well Boat Slaughtery
Vacuum Pump (5) (6) (7) Electrical Stunning (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting
Direct to Shore

Percussive Stunning (8) Bleeding (9) Gutting

Swim from one Live Chilling (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting

cage to next

Held in Well Removed from Carbon Dioxide (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting
Into
Boat Overnight Well Boat Slaughtery
(6) (7) (8) Electrical Stunning (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting

Percussive Stunning (9) Bleeding (10) Gutting

Live Chilling (5) Bleeding (6)

Transport to
Processing Gutting
Shore based Plant
Killing Site Carbon Dioxide (5) Bleeding (6)
(4)
Transport to
Percussive Stunning (5) Bleeding (6) Processing Gutting
Plant

Harvest
Live Chilling (10) Bleeding (11)
Transport to
Processing Gutting
Movable Towed Removed Shore based Plant
Held overnight Crowded
Harvest Cage to Shore from Cage Killing Site Carbon Dioxide (10) Bleeding (11)
(6) (7)
(4) (5) (8) (9)

Roadmap Percussive Stunning (10) Bleeding (11)

Transport to
Processing
Plant
Gutting
 Change in muscle strength

80

60
Failure
Stress 40 Less likely
(kPa)
20 to break
0

3
Rested
Gaping 2
Active Score
1

Jerrett et al 1996 and Robb et al 2000

 Harvest Impacts

• Big driver on rigor onset

– Possible to be 60h pre-rigor
– Commercially can send fish into full rigor in
45min
– Best times seen between 30 and 40h
– Full system control required
• This has a big impact on processing times
• Must not process in rigor or get gaping and poor
yields
Quality Conclusions
 Quality is Very Complex

• Lots of factors throughout the value chain affect

quality
• Lots of interactions
• Training and awareness at any one point is
essential
The Value Chain is the Strongest Tool