Taking Out the 'Fishiness'
What makes saltwater fish taste different than freshwater fish? Why do some fish taste fishy?
Those are a few of the questions a former UW Sea Grant researcher is trying to answer as he continues to investigate what makes fish taste the way it does.
UW-Madison food scientist Robert Lindsay says he hopes to improve the consumer appeal of fish by studying compounds responsible for the enjoyable, sea-like flavor of ocean fish. He also wants to find ways to eliminate unpleasant fishy flavors in fish.
Working with researcher Janet Boyle, Lindsay has discovered how to give freshwater fish a touch of sea-like flavor. Ocean fish, he said, have a distinctive taste due to a diet rich in bromophenols - chemical compounds occurring naturally throughout the marine environment in sea mosses, algae, sandworms, and sea salt.
"Most people recognize the iodine-like or marine-like flavors of ocean fish versus freshwater fish," Lindsay said. "And in fact, the bromophenols have a very strong iodine-like flavor - the type flavor you get, particularly, in gulf shrimp and fish like haddock."
Lindsay can produce this same flavor in lake fish by adding to their diet tiny amounts of bromophenols. Bromophenol-fed fish have slightly whitened flesh and a mild, marine-like flavor, similar to crab or lobster, Lindsay said. Panels of taste-testers, he said, preferred the flavor of these fish over fish that were not fed the special diet.
Lindsay hopes this new recipe will also improve the flavor of commercially grown fish and shrimp.
"One of the complaints about shrimps or prawns is that they look nice and theyÕre large, but they don't have much flavor," he said. "That's because they're being mass cultured on feeds that don't contain the normal flavors that they would get in the wild. So you're ending up with the muscle and the texture but lacking that touch of sea-like flavor." Lindsay and his researchers are also trying to get rid of unwanted fish flavors. Because the most unpleasant fish flavors are caused by the oxidation of long-chain fatty acids in fish and fish oils, he's working with anti-oxidants such as vitamin E, ascorbate, palmitate and BHT.
"It's quite encouraging," Lindsay said. "These natural compounds are very good at preventing oxidation in fish." Fish packagers could add these antioxidants directly to fish fillets or fish oils to suppress unpleasant fish flavors, or mix the antioxidants with fish spices during packaging and freezing.
- Linda Hart
1996-98 Program Proposal Gearing Up
In response to a call for preproposals for the 1996-98 biennium, the UW Sea Grant Institute received 62 responses. Of those, 43 respondents were encouraged to develop full proposals. Principal investigators invited to submit proposals will meet at 6 p.m. on Sept. 12, 1995, in Grainger Hall on the UW-Madison campus. Participants will discuss project and thematic area development for the 1996-98 Wisconsin Sea Grant omnibus submission. Full proposals are due on or before Oct. 13, 1995. Funding for approved projects will begin Sept. 1, 1996.
For further information, contact Delphine Skinner at (608) 263-6747 or email: dskinner@seagrant.wisc.edu.
Applications for the 1996 National Sea Grant Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program are due Sept. 8, 1995.
The fellowship was established in 1979 to provide a one-year, paid internship for graduate students with an interest in marine/ocean/Great Lakes resources and the national policy decisions affecting those resources.
For further information, contact Mary Lou Reeb, phone (608) 263-3296, or email: mlreeb@seagrant.wisc.edu.
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This page created August 1995
Last updated 21 December 1995. T. Yao and J. Eischens
All contents copyright 1995 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
Designed by Tina Yao tlyao@seagrant.wisc.edu