Development of new products from aquaculture fish species
- Autores: Oxana Lazo Zamalloa
- Directores de la Tesis: Luis Guerrero (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat de Girona ( España ) en 2018
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: J. A. Beltrán (presid.), Elena Saguer Hom (secret.), Paula Varela Tomasco (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Tecnología por la Universidad de Girona
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Europeans are regular consumers of fish and aquaculture products and they continue increasing their consumption. In fact, 42% of them have increased eating fish or aquatic products at least once a week in their homes. Nevertheless, in the EU only 10% of the seafood consumption has been originated from EU aquaculture. This situation can be attributed partially to a lack of diversity of aquaculture products and, perhaps more importantly, a lack of processed aquaculture products. In addition, even though some aquatic species are cultured in Europe, finfish aquaculture production is dominated both in volume and value by a handful of species such as Atlantic salmon. Therefore, there is a need to rise the diversification of the aquaculture industry, increasing aquaculture products and developing new markets. One way to make this approach is through the introduction of emerging species in the market. Therefore the project in which this thesis in immersed identified five species of potential aquaculture rearing named: Meagre, Pikeperch, Grey Mullet, Greater Amberjack and Wreckfish.
The aim of this thesis was to develop new products from the selected fish species, incorporating opinions of both experts and naïve assessors thus, including specific demands and consumer preferences, in selected markets of the European Union (UK, Germany, Spain, France and Italy).
In this work a full characterization of the fish species was performed through sensory and physicochemical analyses. In order to acquire the tools for the sensory characterization, two methodologies were applied to generate sensory descriptors for different fish species: Check- All- That- Apply (CATA) and Free Choice Profiling (FCP). Both methods were performed with trained assessors which helped to obtain a reliable profile ensuring that the most relevant attributes were included. Once the appropriate descriptors were obtained a sensory evaluation of the 5 species was performed. In addition a physicochemical characterization was performed through somatic, compositional and instrumental texture analyses. Important differences were found between species. Fat content was among the most relevant discriminating aspects, while hardness was among the most differentiating ones when dealing with texture. Greater amberjack was described with sour flavor, pikeperch was associated to an earthy flavor and grey mullet was characterized by bitter flavor. Sensory firmness was clearly distinctive for wreckfish, while meagre related to juicy texture.
In order to create ideas for the product development 10 focus groups sessions were performed in the five selected countries. Nine concepts were built from these sessions to be used as a basis for the new product development of fish products. Afterwards, a total of 43 product ideas were developed from these concepts and were subsequently screened by experts to assess their suitability.
Twelve fish product prototypes were developed from the fish species accordingly with the previously suggested ideas and based on the physicochemical and sensory properties of the selected species. Six of these products were chosen, based on their level of processing and addressed market. Thus a ready to eat salad with fish, a fish burger shaped as fish, a fish pate, smoked fillets, fillets in olive oil and a fillet for grilling were the selected products to be further characterized by trained assessors and consumers.
The products characterization was achieved through the use of CATA, therefore the discriminant ability of CATA performed with trained assessors and CATA performed with consumers was compared with a traditional Quantitative Analysis. All three methodologies proved to have a good discriminant ability clearly separating all six samples. Nevertheless, consumers had the highest variability among them compared to the trained assessors even when describing very different samples.
In addition to the product characterization, consumers perception of all six of them was also assessed in the five selected countries. Expectations of the overall liking according to a product perception, a blind tasting and a subsequent product assessment with full informed condition on each product were measured. Purchase probability was also included in the evaluation. As it turned out the image/perception of the different products, differed in an important way between countries, as well as their impact on the product acceptance and purchase probability.
