Oxidative changes during ice storage of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed different ratios of marine and vegetable feed ingredients

Recently fish meal and oil have increasingly been replaced with proteins and oils from vegetable sources in the diets of farmed salmonids, but the consequences for the oxidative stability of the resulting fish products have not been investigated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of feeding regime on composition of rainbow trout fillets, as well as on lipid and protein oxidation during storage on ice.

Rainbow trout were fed six different diets, which differed in their levels of marine oil and proteins vs. vegetable oil and protein. Fish fillets were characterised by measurement of fatty acid and amino acid composition, primary and secondary lipid oxidation products, astaxanthin and tocopherol content.

Protein oxidation was assessed by measuring protein carbonyl content, oxidised amino acids, sulfhydryl groups and immuno-blotting against carbonyl groups. Feeding regimes significantly influenced fatty acid composition. Replacement of fish oil with vegetable oil reduced formation of primary oxidation products, but the effect on secondary oxidation products differed between different types of volatiles.

The differences in protein and amino acid composition were not significant, and there were no clear effects of diets on protein oxidation, but data indicated that compounds present in the marine ingredients might have had an effect on protein oxidation.