The relationship between the surface color and astaxanthin concentration of different fillet parts of Atlantic salmon under mariculture and freshwater farming modes

The cultivate method has a significant impact on the quality of fish, such as the accumulation of nutritive substances, the surface glossiness and so on. Comparison of surface color profile and astaxanthin (AST) accumulation in Atlantic salmon between marian and freshwater was systematically discussed in this study. Mariculture was much easier to accumulate color than the freshwater farming. Meanwhile, regardless of aquaculture environment, different muscle parts of Atlantic salmon showed various chromaticity value. And the dorsal muscle was the best one, followed by the tail and abdomen. Specifically, AST content was determined. An orthogonal experiment, L9(33), was applied to optimize the extraction conditions. Under optimized conditions, AST concentration reached 15.56 μg/g, an 80.51 % increase than before. Interestingly, color value was not positively correlated with AST concentration in various muscle parts of the same fish. Compared to the dorsal part, the tail part showed lower color and higher AST content. However, the AST content in mariculture was higher than that in freshwater farming overall. These results provided a better understanding of the relationship between color and AST concentration in Atlantic salmon.