The increased volume of processed fish has serious economic and environmental costs in the food supply chain. Due to the demand for ready-to-use meals and products from fish, the fish industry is generating large amounts of side-streams that are disposed of as waste. Therefore, finding new ways to exploit these fish side-stream is increasingly important in order to ensure the sustainability of the fish industry.

To date, studies on the potential of fish side-stream as a source of antioxidants or other bioactive ingredients has been limited. This research article, in which AQUABIOPROFIT partner, Centro Tecnolóxico da Carne de Galicia, is involved, explores the application of pulsed electric field (PEF) for antioxidant extract production from fish side-streams. The study uses three different residues (gills, bones and heads) from two commercial fish species (sea bream and sea bass).

PEF is a new emerging non-thermal technology that is commonly used for the extraction of bioactive ingredients/compounds from foodstuffs. The principal feature of this technology is treating samples with high-voltage electrical pulses for short time periods. As a result of applying PEF, the structure of cell membranes from a sample is disrupted and the extraction of trapped bioactive compounds is facilitated. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the potential of PEF as a technology to improve the antioxidant extraction capacity from the above-mentioned fish types and side-streams.

The findings of the study reveal that water extraction assisted by PEF improved the antioxidant capacity of extracts with respect to water and methanol extracts. More specifically, the antioxidant capacity of sea bream residues indicate superior values than those obtained from sea bass residues. Moreover, the findings of the present study suggest that PEF would be an environmentally friendly and economic choice for antioxidant-extract production from low-value fish side-streams.

The full article can be found here: Franco et al (2020) Application of Pulsed Electric Fields for Obtaining Antioxidant Extracts from Fish Residues