Land-based growth of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and consumers’ acceptance

Abstract

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is currently the highest valued species grown in Europe. The industry has been on the frontline of public concerns regarding sustainability which has increased the use of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Salmon has changed from a luxury product to global commodity. Nevertheless, food products need to meet consumers demand for the industry to be successful. Descriptive sensory tests present a sophisticated tool for the comparison of product prototypes to understand consumer responses in relation to sensory attributes. Aquaculture is being promoted in the Basque region with the aim of creating a sustainable and complementary economic activity to the fishing and seafood sectors. Here, RAS and salmon have been prioritized as a potential technology and species respectively. Both salmon's growth and a hedonic evaluation of the final product's consumer acceptance and purchasing intention were studied. One thousand five hundred salmon individuals were grown for 497 days at two different thermal regimes in two pilot-scale RAS units using partial reuse water recirculation systems. Growth rates were significantly different for both temperature regimes during the second summer season; some compensatory growth patterns were observed that followed the timing of the natural thermal regime. No significant differences were observed at sensorial level between fillet samples from the present study and salmon from Denmark. Consumer's high level of acceptance and positive product purchasing intention reflect the possibility of locally marketing RAS grown salmon. This study refers to the first technical attempt at salmon in land-based aquaculture systems in northern Spain.