Eating fish in another way: Development of functional pasta with added concentrates of farmed sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Background and objectives Due to its nutritional properties and a raising awareness of healthy eating, fish consumption has increased. There is a need to produce attractive foods, and pasta is a good vehicle for developing functional foods. With this aim, this research developed traditional pastas with added concentrates of flesh and skin from aquaculture seabass (nondegreased fish concentrate) to improve both their sensory and nutritional properties. Findings Nutritional and sensory improvements were achieved in new pastas developed with nondegreased fish concentrates consisting of pasta made with fish fillet and skins. They showed higher amounts of fat and ash with an important enrichment in unsaturated fatty acids. Conclusions The pastas developed were stable due to their low water activity (<0.85), and they had high protein quantities (>= 17%) and moderate fat amounts (3%-6%) being an important source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially EPA (>1%) and DHA (>2.5%), according to fatty acid profiles. Significance and novelty This work definitely suggests that incorporation of dried nondegreased fish concentrates will result in improvement of nutritional quality of pasta in terms of higher protein and balance of omega 6/3 fatty acids. This approach could be used to avail the health benefits of fish concentrate additions to pasta as a functional food and provide an alternative way to consume fish.