Effect of way of cooking on content of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids in muscle tissue of humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)

Contents of fatty acids in filets of unfrozen (control), boiled, fried, roasted and boiled in a small amount of water humpback salmon, collected from a wholesale market in Krasnoyarsk city (Siberia, Russia) were analyzed. Special attention was paid to essential polyunsaturated fatty acids of omega 3 family: eicosapentaenoic, 20:50 (EPA) and docosahexaenoic, 22:6 omega 3 (DHA). Heat treatment in general did not decrease content of EPA and DHA in humpback, except a modest reduction during frying. Cooked humpback appeared to be the valuable source of essential omega 3 PUFAs, namely EPA and DHA. It was hypothesized that the absence of significant reduction of PUFAs' contents in red flesh of fishes of Salmonidae family during heat treatment may be due to a high level of natural antioxidants which formed in the course of evolution as adaptation to their ecological niche. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.