FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE,MOA,TAIWAN

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of two types of floating pellets, e.g. nutrition-enhanced experimental diet and commercial pellets as a reference diet, on the growth, chemical composition, sensory evaluation and meat quality of cultured eel. Replicates of 200 eel with a mean body weight of 82.8 g were raised in indoor concrete tanks for five months. The growth performance, feed conversion ratio and body indices were not significantly affected by dietary treatments. The results of colorimetry measurements showed that no significant differences in L* and b* values were found for both dietary treatments, while the a* value was remarkably reduced on the eel fed with the experimental diet. The post-thaw drip from muscle was significantly reduced in the experimental diet group, which implied that the water holding capacity of the eel muscle was improved by feeding the experimental diet. Although the proximate composition of dressed eel was not affected by diets, the lipid content of the experimental diet group was numerically higher than that of the reference diet group. Meanwhile, the percentage of 18:2n-6 was higher in the eel fed the experimental diet, but no significant differences in 20:5n-3 (EPA) and 22:6n-3 (DHA) were observed on both dietary treatments. There were higher concentrations of glycine, alanine, serine, glutamic acid and proline in the muscle of the eel fed with the experimental diet than those fed with the reference diet. The results of sensory evaluation indicated that the texture, taste and overall acceptability of roasted eel fed with the experimental diet were superior to those fed with the reference diet. The skin color, water holding capacity and sensory evaluation of cultured eel was remarkably improved by feeding the nutrition-enhanced pellets.