Off-flavors in aquaculture: An overview

The demand for aquaculture products continues to accelerate worldwide. One of the most economically significant problems encountered in aquaculture is "off-flavor" in the cultured product. Off-flavors can be related to the diet of the cultured animal, caused by inadequate post-harvest management strategies, and/or environmentally derived. The latter has received the most attention in terms of research approaches for developing methods to prevent off-flavors in aquaculture products. The production of off-flavor compounds by certain species of cyanobacteria is the greatest contributing factor to off-flavor in fishery products. In this chapter, the types and causes of off-flavor that may occur in a wide variety of aquaculture products are discussed. In addition, the most recent developments in research for the prevention of off flavor in aquaculture are discussed, and recent technological advances in off-flavor detection are presented.