Fuente: Foods - Revista científica (MDPI) Foods, Vol. 14, Pages 4339: Indoor Recirculating Aquaculture Versus Traditional Ponds: Effects on Muscle Nutrient Profiles, Texture, and Flavour Compounds in Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides)
Foods doi: 10.3390/foods14244339
Authors:
Di Feng
Rui Feng
Chang Liu
Lingran Wang
Yongjing Li
Meng Zhang
Miao Yu
Hongxia Jiang
Zhigang Qiao
Lei Wang

This study compared the muscle quality of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) reared in a simplified indoor factory-scale recirculating aquaculture system (F-RAS) with those reared in a traditional pond (TP). Juveniles from the same cohort (with a mean initial body mass of approximately 16 g) were stocked into the two systems and reared for ten months. The F-RAS is a high-density indoor system utilising octagonal concrete tanks with an effective water volume of 100 m3 and a stocking density of 130 fish m−3. The TP is a low-density system, where fish are reared in earthen ponds with a total area of 4000 m2 at a density of 1.7 fish m−3. At the end of the experiment, 20 fish per group were randomly sampled for morphological analysis, while subsets of 6 fish per group were used for texture analysis, 3 fish per group for water-holding capacity, 3 fish per group for proximate composition, and 9 fish per group (pooled into 3 biological replicates) for amino acid, fatty acid and volatile compound analyses. The results showed that the F-RAS group exhibited superior texture, with significantly higher chewiness, springiness and muscle fibre density. Nutritionally, the F-RAS group had significantly greater crude protein, EPA, DHA and total n-3 fatty acid contents. Although glutamate and leucine levels were lower in the F-RAS group, cysteine and histidine levels were higher. Analysis of volatile compounds indicated improved flavour in the F-RAS group, with a marked reduction in off-flavour compounds such as 1-octen-3-ol and hexanal. Overall, largemouth bass produced in F-RAS showed better muscle quality than those from the TP in terms of texture, nutritional value and flavour. This study provides a reference for future research on the regulation of muscle quality in largemouth bass using a simplified F-RAS.