THE FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES OF THE PROTEINS, TEXTURE AND THE SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS OF FROZEN SEA BREAM FILLETS (SPARUS-AURATA) FROM DIFFERENT FARMING SYSTEMS

The expressible moisture of muscle tissue, the texture and certain sen sory characteristics of sea bream (Sparus aurata) have been evaluated. The fillets were from both intensive and extensive farming systems; t he former were raised on artificial feed in tanks, the latter were bre d and raised on a natural diet in brackish water lagoons. The fillets were taken from approximately 400 g fish (commercial size) that were c aught during the same month (December) and in the same area. No signif icant differences were found in the expressible moisture. However, the sea bream raised on artificial feed had a higher far content which pr oduced different texture measured both instrumentally and sensorially.