Fish is a fundamental component of the human diet, and in the near future the proportion of aquatic foods originating from aquaculture production is expected to increase to over 56%. The sustainable growth of the aquaculture sector involves the use of new sustainable raw materials as substitutes for traditional fishmeal and fish oil ingredients, but it is crucial that the substitution maintains the nutritional value of the fish meat. In addition, the preservation of the nutritional value should be a mandatory requirement of new technologies that extend the shelf life of fish. In this context, we evaluated the impact of a newly formulated feed and three preservation treatments (brine, pulsed electric field (PEF), and PEF plus brine) on the fatty acid composition and protein and lipid digestibility of sea bass fillets. In non-digested fillets, although slightly reduced by the newly formulated feed (standard = 2.49 ± 0.14; newly formulated = 2.03 ± 0.10) the n-3/n-6 PUFA ratio indicated good nutritional value. The preservation treatments did not modify the fatty acid content and profile of non-digested fillets. Conversely, protein and lipid digestibility were not affected by the different diets but were significantly reduced by brine, with or without PEF, while PEF alone had no effect. Overall, our results indicated that the newly formulated feed containing 50% less fishmeal is a good compromise between the sustainability and nutritional value of cultivated seabass, and PEF is a promising preservation technology deserving of further study.
Keywords: PEF; aquaculture; brine; feed; in vitro digestion; lipolysis; nutritional value; protein hydrolysis; sea bass.