Fish in Vitro Digestion: Influence of Fish Salting on the Extent of Lipolysis, Oxidation, and Other Reactions.

A study of the various chemical reactions which take place during fish in vitro digestion and the potential effect of fish salting on their extent is addressed for the first time. Farmed European sea bass fillets, raw, brine-salted or dry-salted, were digested using a gastrointestinal in vitro model. Fish lipid extracts before and after digestion were analyzed by (1)H NMR, and the headspace composition of the digestates was investigated by SPME-GC/MS. During digestion, not only lipolysis, but also fish lipid oxidation took place. This latter was evidenced by the generation of conjugated dienes supported on chains having also hydroperoxy- and hydroxy-groups (primary oxidation compounds), by the increase of volatile secondary oxidation products, and by the decrease of the antioxidant 2,6-di-tert-butyl-hydroxytoluene (BHT). Likewise, esterification and Maillard-type reactions also occurred. Salting, and especially dry-salting, enhanced all these reactions, except for lipolysis, during digestion.