Catfish off-flavors and their elimination

Due to an increasing population, desire for seafood and over harvesting of natural resources, aquaculture has become a billion-dollar a year industry in the United States. Aquaculture is essentially the production of aquatic organisms under controlled conditions. Although conditions are controlled to a certain degree, absolute control of water quality is not possible in these environments. This reason alone is a huge problem that can cost the industry millions of dollars a year. In catfish, geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol are two compounds that are primarily responsible for imparting a musty/earthy off-flavor. These compounds are secondary metabolites of some species of blue-green algae and actinomycetous bacteria. Several pre-harvest and post-harvest techniques have been used in an attempt to eliminate this off flavor problem in catfish. This chapter will cover the general catfish off-flavor issues and examples of methods for eliminating the off-flavors.