The full title of the Marie Curie project is ‘Controlling oxidative deterioration during manufacturing and storage of healthy seafood products prepared from under-utilised fish species’. The aim is to investigate the possibilities of using under-exploited fish species like horse mackerel for the production of healthy, high quality fish minces with different lipid contents. The fish mince may subsequently be used for products like surimi or fish balls. Horse mackerel is a fatty fish containing the polyunsaturated essential omega 3 fatty acids, and therefore it oxidises easily. To maintain and secure a high nutritional and sensory quality of horse mackerel products, oxidative deterioration during processing and storage must be minimised. Therefore, a secondary aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of oxidation processes in these products and especially to unravel the mechanisms involved in the interaction between products of lipid and protein oxidation. Subsequently, this knowledge will be used to select antioxidants that may prevent oxidative deterioration during processing and storage of the fish mince. Finally, the selected antioxidants will be tested in fish mince with different lipid contents. It is expected that the project will result in a set of guidelines for the production of fatty fish products with high nutritional value and good oxidative stability e.g. the type of antioxidant to use, and at which concentration, in order to obtain a product with a good frozen stability. The project is therefore highly relevant for the European fish industries. An aim of the Marie Curie project is also to initiate new collaborative projects between INRA/IFREMER and DIFRES.
