Lipid fraction and fatty acid profile changes in low-salt fermented fish as affected by processing stage and inoculation of autochthonous starter cultures

Effects of processing stage and inoculation of autochthonous starter cultures on the lipid fraction and fatty acid profile in low-salt fermented fish were investigated. Drying had less influence on lipid composition. After 4 weeks of fermentation, there were slight changes in neutral lipid (NL) contents, while the proportion of phospholipids (PL) decreased significantly with a concomitant increase in free fatty acids (FFA). Comparing with the CO batch, addition of starter cultures resulted in increase in FFA contents to different extents, and the sample with Staphylococcus xylosus 135 had the highest FFA contents. Inoculation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae 31 caused minimum PL loss. Fatty acid profile analysis showed that higher proportions of monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids were liberated than saturated fatty acids after fermentation regardless of starter cultures. Addition of starter cultures could retard the loss of the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) during fermentation. Furthermore, results indicated that the increased FFA especially free PUFA in fermented Suan yu mainly resulted from lipolysis of PL.