Background

Aquaculture products provide consumers with consistent high quality, nutritious foods.  Maintaining superior product quality and developing novel aquaculture products are imperative to increasing consumer demand, developing new markets for aquaculture products, and meeting consumer expectations for safety, variety and nutritional value.  Proactive safety/quality assurance programs, improved management of off-flavor in aquaculture production systems, development of new product forms, and new and improved technologies for processing, packaging, and preserving aquaculture products must continue to meet producer, processor, and consumer needs.  Improvements of processes for traditional uses of byproducts are needed, as are discoveries for new high-value uses of byproducts.

Vision Statement

Provide consumers with a variety of high quality, safe, nutritious and innovative aquaculture products. 

Mission Statement

Ensure and optimize the safety, freshness, flavor, texture, taste, nutritional characteristics, and shelf life of cultured fish and shellfish products, and to develop new value-added products and processes through research, development and technology transfer.

Impact

Increased consumer satisfaction and demand for aquaculture products.

Linkages

USDA-ARS National Programs: 101 Food Animal Production; 108 Food Safety and 306 Quality and Utilization of Agricultural Products

Other Agencies and Departments: Auburn University, Mississippi State University, University of Alaska, University of Idaho, University of Mississippi, National Marine Fisheries Service, The Oceanic Institute, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Private sector: Catfish Farmers of America, The Catfish Institute, other processing groups

Problems to be addressed

a.  Tissue Quality

Research is needed to identify strategies and develop technologies to ensure delivery of consistent, high quality, and innovative aquaculture products.

Goals

Identify techniques and technologies for post-harvest handling and processing of aquaculture products to enhance product value, quality, functionality, and sensory characteristics.

Approaches

1.      To develop processing strategies that focus on tissue quality for maintaining high quality, safe products and for the innovation of new products.

2.      To identify quality, functional, and sensory characteristics of selected tissues from aquaculture species that affect consumer perception and demand.

3.      To apply this technology to increase consumer demand for new and existing products. 

Outcomes

• The development of processing technologies/strategies that increase consumer demand for aquaculture products derived from sustainable, profitable production systems.

ARS Locations

• Pine Bluff, AR 
• Stoneville, MS 
• Fairbanks, AK 

b.  Interaction of Genetics and Nutrition

Research on the interaction between genetics and nutrition in aquaculture is essential to improve the development and production of high quality aquaculture products.  The development and use of improved germplasm and diets have played important roles in the profitable production of high quality products in many livestock species and the same principles apply to aquaculture species. 

Goals

Identify key needs for germplasm improvement, diet development, and potential interactions between genetic improvement and nutrition that will allow development and production of high quality aquaculture products from profitable production systems. 

Approaches

1.      Consult with aquaculture producers, processors, consumer groups, and leading researchers in areas of genetics and nutrition to determine important product quality issues that could be influenced by diets and/or genetic improvement programs. 

2.      Conduct research that examines interactions of diet and genetically improved germplasm that enhances production of high quality aquaculture products from profitable production systems. 

Outcomes

• Identification of critical research areas in genetics and nutrition of aquaculture species that lead to the improvement in production of high quality aquaculture products from profitable production systems. 

ARS Locations

• Stoneville, MS 
• Stuttgart, AR 

c.  Predicting Product Quality or Defects

Mislabeled imports and large variations in production practices lead to considerable variation in quality of aquaculture products.  Lack of consistent product quality can lead to consumer dissatisfaction and subsequent loss of future purchases of aquaculture products.  Producers and processors need methods to identify defects and ensure product quality stocks. 

Goals

1.      Methods that distinguish between domestic and foreign aquaculture products.

2.      Pre-harvest and post-harvest techniques and systems to ensure product quality. 

Approaches

1.      Use genomics (e.g., molecular markers) to identify and verify strains/species of cultured aquatic organisms.

2.      Develop rapid diagnostic assays to verify the identity of cultured aquatic organisms.

3.      Develop pre- and post-harvest technologies/strategies that ensure consistent, high quality aquaculture products. 

Outcomes

• Consumers will be provided with more information and confidence about the quality of aquaculture products.  
• Enforcement of labeling regulations will be easier. 

ARS Locations

• Auburn, AL 
• Stoneville, MS 

d.  Off-flavor Delayed Harvesting

Off-flavors cause delays in the harvest of aquaculture products and result in severe economic losses to producers.  In addition, off-flavors can adversely affect consumer demand and aquaculture industry development due to inconsistent product quality.  Producers need better management practices and methods to prevent and control environmentally derived off-flavors.  

Goals

Management practices that result in consistent, high quality and excellent tasting aquaculture products will be realized. 

Approaches

1.      Discovery and development of natural, selective algicides to manage the most common environmentally-derived, off-flavor compounds.

2.      Discovery and development of organisms for the remediation of off-flavors.

3.      Discovery, development, and application of methods to predict off-flavor episodes. 

Outcomes

• Improved, off-flavor management practices that reduce producer costs. 

ARS Locations

• New Orleans, LA        
• Oxford, MS 
• Pine Bluff, AR 
• Stoneville, MS 

e.  Off-flavor Methodology

Producers lack methods to easily detect the occurrence of environmentally-derived off-flavors.  Factors promoting the occurrence of such off-flavor episodes are not completely understood.  The biochemical pathways involved in the production of the most common environmentally-derived off-flavors are unknown, and the regulation and control of these pathways have not been determined.  

Goals

1.      Methods to easily detect common off-flavor compounds.

2.      Methods to control biological processes that will help maintain consistently high quality products. 

Approaches

1.      Develop biological and/or chemical methods that producers can use to easily detect common environmentally-derived off-flavor compounds.

2.      Determine the biological pathways and regulatory steps of common off-flavor compounds.

3.      Develop methods for controlling the biological pathways of common off-flavor compounds. 

Outcomes

• Consistent and excellent tasting aquaculture products will be provided to consumers. 

ARS Locations

• Auburn, AL 
• New Orleans, LA 
• Stoneville, MS 

f.  New Uses for Byproducts

Most byproducts produced from the processing of aquatic animals are either not utilized or are underutilized.  Processors often incur additional expenses due to the disposal of these unused by products.  The identification of high-value uses and development of methods for the utilization of by-products will help reduce the economic burden on processors and create sustainable agricultural systems.  Aquatic animal processing byproducts are being used to make food products for humans, as animal feed ingredients, industrial products, fertilizers, and composts.  New high-value uses need to be discovered to improve the utilization of processing byproducts and knowledge about the properties of their biochemical constituents will benefit fish processors and consumers and reduce environmental impact. 

Goals

Discover high-value uses for fish processing byproducts for commercialization. 

Approaches

1.      Characterize aquatic animal processing wastes to develop methods for utilizing these materials.

2.      Develop innovative methods for the collection and storage of by-products

3.      Develop and improve processing technologies to create new value-added products from waste by-products.

4.     Chemically and nutritionally characterize new value-added products and devise implementation strategies.

Outcomes

• New high-value products. 
• Enhanced use of fishery processing byproducts that results in additional sources of revenue for processors and reduced byproducts wasted. 

ARS Locations

• Fairbanks, AK
• Wyndmoor, PA 

g.  Processing

The economics of aquatic animal processing are greatly influenced by product yield and further processing to create value-added products.  Improved methods for removing more flesh from the animal frame would increase the recovery yield for processors and provide edible tissue for existing and new high-value product forms.  The development of new and improved products that utilize trimmings, tissue minces, mechanically de-boned tissue, broken and miss-cut tissue, and other edible tissue would help processors.  

Goals

More efficient processing methods to enhance recovery of the edible portion of the aquatic animal and development of new product forms that use these smaller, edible portions in novel value-added products. 

Approaches

1.      Improve current technologies and develop new mechanical means to more efficiently fillet or recover edible components from the aquatic animal.

2.      Use consumer preferences and demands in the development of new product forms and value added products that utilize the recovered edible portions of the aquatic animals.

Outcomes

• Increased processing efficiency and recovery. 
• Increased variety of aquaculture products to consumers. 

ARS Locations

• Fairbanks, AK 
• Pine Bluff, AR 
• Stoneville, MS