Research technician Doug Singer examines the texture of salmon steaks using a portable fish texture tester. The synthetic antioxidant ethoxyquin is included in salmon feeds as an ingredient in fish meal in the last stage of its manufacture. M.Sc. student Ping He, confirmed that ethoxyquin was partially lost by sacrificial oxidation and partially dimerized. Purified standards were prepared and an elegant chromatographic protocol developed to allow quantification of ethoxyquin and of its recognizable products in formulated feed and in fish. Only trace residues of ethoxyquin were found in market-sized farmed salmonids.
Ping is currently a research technician in the pharmaceutical industry in Ontario.
A study of the effect of high levels of dietary fat in salmon nutrition on muscle texture and quality was completed using the Dalhousie Aquatron Laboratory. Dr. S.P. Lall of the National Research Council was a co-investigator with Drs. The study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between dietary fat and the softening of the muscle. In addition to histological studies, proteolytic softening of the muscle was examined. A study by graduate student, Dihui Wang from the Biological Engineering Department, looked at the effects of salt uptake in salmon fillets destined for smoking.