A seven-month long feeding trial was conducted to investigate the dietary influence on
texture, gaping and liquid loss in fillets of Atlantic salmon.
During the first 3 months of the experiment the salmon where fed a diet with high fat
content (36%) and a diet with low fat content (18%). One group where also fed the low
fat diet in half ration. As expected, this resulted in groups of salmon with significant
differences in body weight and fat content. By achieving this, we could study the
differences in flesh quality and fat composition among groups with different growth
potential through the autumn.
These groups where then mixed in new net pens and fed different diets for the next 4
months. The new diets had equal fat content, but different main lipid source (rapeseed
oil/marine oil) and protein level.
Main dietary oil source in the diet did not affect the slaughter parameters, except for the
slaughter yield. The fatty acid composition of the fillets, were also strongly affected by
dietary oil source. Quality parameters were not affected by oil source, except for a
somewhat lower liquid loss in the group fed the marine70 diet.
The present study did not see any significant effect of adding extra amino acids to a diet
in terms of slaughter parameters, fat and fatty acid composition and quality parameters