The effect of white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) ovarian fat deposition on caviar yield and nutritional quality: introducing image processing method for sturgeon ovary fat determination

Authors

• Mahmoudreza Ovissipour
• Hamzah M. Al-Qadiri ¹
• Xiaonan Lu ²
• Yaxi Hu ²
• Carolyn F. Ross ³
• Joel P. Van Eenennaam ⁴
• Serge I. Doroshov ⁴
• Barbara Rasco ³

¹ Department of Nutrition and Food Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

² Food, Nutrition and Health Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

³ School of Food Science, Washington State University, P.O. Box 646376, Pullman, WA, 99164-6376, USA

⁴ Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

10.1007/s40071-015-0111-0

Abstract

Image analysis can predict the fat content of sturgeon ovaries that had been categorized as having a low, medium, and high fat content based upon the caviar yield expressed as a percent of the total ovary weight, and were correlated with the chemical measurement of total fat (R 2 = 0.83). The fatty acid composition of eggs was not influenced by ovary fat content. Palmitic acid (16:00) was the most abundant saturated fatty acid and oleic acid (18:1n-9) the most predominant monounsaturated fatty acids in sturgeon eggs regardless of the ovary fat content. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in eggs from fish with different fat ovaries. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) coupled with principal component analysis indicated no significant difference in chemical compositions in sturgeon eggs separated from ovaries of different fat contents confirming the fatty acid composition results.

Keywords

• White sturgeon
• Ovary fat
• Egg quality
• Image analysis
• FT-IR spectroscopy

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