Research

Digestibility & Nutritional Quality for Alaskan Salmon & Pollock

Problem:

Scientific work over the past few years has underlined the significant health advantages of the Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in abundance in cold-water marine fish. Ongoing studies on manufacturing baby foods from Alaskan salmon have given indications that another potentially healthful advantage of cold-water marine fish lies in its ease of digestibility. While food scientists routinely rely on chemical tests for ascertaining relative digestibility, a dedicated formal investigation of the digestibility of cold-water marine fish in a mammalian model system and compared with beef, pork and chicken, would be of considerable value to Alaskan seafood producers.

Approach:

In collaboration with the University of Illinois we propose to measure the digestibility in a model mammalian system, of pink salmon and pollock fillet meats in addition to pink salmon roe. The objective of this project is to compare the nutritional quality and digestibility of protein from pink salmon and pollock fillets, pink salmon roe, pork (M. longissimus), beef (M. longissimus), and chicken breast muscle.

Results:

Results indicate that fish is at least as easily digested as beef, pork and chicken. Furthermore, in some tests fish appeared to be more easily digested than the other test material. If fish is not the most nutritious protein entrée, it is at least tied for first place.

Presentations & Publications:

Faber, TA., Bechtel, PJ., Hernot, DC., Parsons, CM., Swanson, KS., Smiley, S. & Fahey, GC. 2010. Protein digestibility evaluations of meat and fish substrates using laboratory, avian, and ileally cannulated dog assays. Journal Animal Science. 88: 1421-1432.

Vester Boler, BM., Faber, TA., Bauer, LL., Swanson, KS., Smiley, S., Bechtel, PJ. & Fahey, GC. 2010 Fish proteins are no more satiating than mammalian or avian proteins in dogs. Journal of Nutrition (in press).

Contact person:

Dr. Scott Smiley: stsmiley@alaska.edu