A key development in farmed salmon production has been the improved high-fat feeds, however, causing oil retention issues. While coating fats effectively solved the problem of oil leakage, their indigestibility unfortunately leads to increased seabed fat deposition with an adverse environmental impact. This research aims to develop a novel coating fat with enhanced digestibility while preserving its essential technological functionality.
The novel coating fat (IEQ) is compared with a widely used commercial one (control) in salmon feed, using identical formulations and processing. We assessed Oil retention capacity at 40°C by quantifying mass oil lost over total feed mass. In Vitro Digestibility was determined by measuring fat content in pellets after simulated salmon gastrointestinal digestion. In Vitro Cytotoxicity was evaluated by the viability of AGS (human gastric adenocarcinoma, ECACC89090402) and Caco-2 (Human colon adenocarcinoma, ECACC 86010202) cell lines after 24-hour exposure to bioavailable fraction dilutions from simulated digestion.
The novel coating fat exhibited comparable cytotoxicity and oil retention to the commercial alternative, yet demonstrated superior digestibility, evidenced by a 21% lower fat content in pellets.