Rheological, Nutritional, and Sensory Properties of Costa Rican and Imported tilapia, Oreochromis spp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22458/urj.v18i1.6186Keywords:
Aquaculture, quality, agricultural production-aquaculture, animal products, compositionAbstract
Introduction: In the Costa Rican market, tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) represents 80% of aquaculture production, competing in sales with fillets imported mainly from Asia. Yet there is a lack of comparative studies on the quantitative differences and quality perceptions of these products. Objective: To compare the instrumental, sensory, and nutritional properties of tilapia fillets produced in Costa Rica and three imported samples commercially available nationwide. Methods. We evaluated one domestic and three imported commercial tilapia brands for proximate composition (moisture, protein, lipids, ash, pH, and water activity) and fatty acid profiles using gas chromatography. We also measured instrumental color and texture via Texture Profile Analysis, and overall sensory acceptability by 105 untrained consumers. We applied one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s HSD or LSD mean comparison tests, Pearson correlations and Ward’s hierarchical cluster analysis. Results: Domestic tilapia had a higher protein content (19%) and lower moisture (79%), which resulted in a texture profile with more firmness, gumminess and chewiness. We associated this with a pH close to neutrality (6,37), indicating greater freshness compared to the imported counterparts, which showed much more alkaline values up to 8,57. The individual lipid profile did not present significant differences among samples and was dominated by oleic, palmitic, and linoleic acids, whereas when grouped by saturation, only a slight superiority in ω-3 was evidenced in one imported sample. A different case was colorimetry, where we did find differences for lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*). The sensory acceptability evaluation revealed the existence of four consumer clusters, two of which rated domestic tilapia with low scores, describing it as less desirable compared to imported samples, making it clear that texture was prioritized as an attribute. Conclusion: Although it can be argued that domestic tilapia has greater freshness and a debatably better nutritional profile, the imported samples were more sensorially attractive for a significant fraction of consumers participating in the sensory panel.
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