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Aquaculture 187 2000 105–125 www.elsevier.nlrlocateraqua-online
Sensory characteristics of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon
Linda J. Farmer
a,
, Janice M. McConnell
a,1
, David J. Kilpatrick
b
a
Department of Food Science, The Queen’s UniÕersity of Belfast, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK
b
Department of Biometrics, The Queen’s UniÕersity of Belfast, Newforge Lane, Belfast BT9 5PX, UK Received 28 January 1999; received in revised form 11 November 1999; accepted 9 December 1999
Abstract
The eating quality characteristics of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon, from locations in and around Northern Ireland, were compared by sensory analysis of frozen salmon. Quantitative
descriptive analysis, using a trained panel, was used to compare specific attributes, while an untrained panel used hedonic scaling methods to assess acceptability. Freezing affected texture
and appearance but had little influence on flavour, while extended frozen storage had few further effects. The main differences in eating quality occurred between river-caught salmon and
sea-caught salmon, whether farmed or wild; river-caught salmon tended to receive the highest scores for earthy aroma, flavour and aftertaste and the lowest scores for salmon-like odour and
flavour. However, farmed salmon tended to exhibit textures which were more moist and light and less firm than salmon from wild sources. Farmed salmon were at least as acceptable as wild
salmon in terms of appearance, odour, flavour, texture, aftertaste and overall acceptability. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Acceptability; Atlantic salmon; Flavour; Odour; Storage; Texture; Appearance; Farmed; Wild
1. Introduction
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The farming of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar has become an important commercial enterprise in a number of North European regions, including Scotland, Ireland and the
fjords of Norway. However, the wild Atlantic salmon has been regarded as a seasonal
Corresponding author. Tel.: q44-28-90-255342; fax: q44-28-90-669551. Ž
. E-mail address: l.farmerqub.ac.uk L.J. Farmer .
1
Department of Public Health Medicine, NHSSB, County Hall, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT42 1QB UK 0044-8486r00r - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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luxury food for centuries, and it is often asserted that the eating quality of wild salmon is better than that of farmed fish.
The possible quality differences between wild and farmed salmon have been the subject of research for both the Atlantic salmon and the various species of Pacific
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salmon Oncorhynchus sp. ; some authors have reported differences in eating quality between wild and farmed salmon while others have found no difference. Sylvia et al.
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1995 found that the wild salmon had more ‘delicate, fresh fish flavour’ but no difference in texture from farmed salmon. In terms of colour, the flesh of wild salmon
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has also variously been reported to have less yellow hue Skrede and Storebakken, 1986 Ž
. and more red colour Higgs et al., 1989 than that of their farmed equivalents. Sensory
differences in colour, texture or flavour have also been reported between wild and Ž
cultured fish of other species Hatae et al., 1989; Aoki et al., 1991; Prescott and Bell, .
1992; Orban et al., 1997 . In contrast, other authors have reported that the eating quality Ž
of farmed salmon is similar or preferred to that of wild Bartos, 1989; Higgs et al., .
Ž 1989 . Thus, the effect of domestication on the eating quality of Atlantic salmon and
. other fish species remains unclear. The above studies have compared fish from only
two or three sources for any one species of salmon and it is possible that any sensory differences observed could be entirely due to the difference in location. Considerable
sensory differences can exist between trout from two farms from the same region Ž
. Farmer, unpubl. data . Thus, the primary purpose of this investigation was to examine
sensory differences between farmed and wild Atlantic salmon from a total of eight locations in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland. As it was necessary
to conduct these studies on frozen fish, a short investigation was also conducted to check the effect of frozen storage on the sensory attributes under examination.
2. Materials and methods
