Department: Chemical and Biological Engineering/Food Science

Contact person: Ingrid Undeland and Thippeswamy Sannaveerappa

Date: as soon as possible

Description: Recent research has shown that the aqueous fraction of herring muscle (which is about 80% of the wet weight of herring!) is very rich in potent antioxidants. The aqueous fraction has therefore been isolated by centrifugation and tested in various model systems. When added to fish mince fortified with the oxidation catalyst hemoglobin, it completely prevents oxidation, and thus, the development of rancid odours. This can have great practical imlications in fish processing. We have also shown that the aqueous fraction has antioxidative effects under physiological conditions, which can be important in disease prevention. It can for example scavenge free radicals in a human monocyte model and lower the level of oxidation products in obese rats. Most of the antioxidative activity is retained in the low molecular weight (LMW) fraction (<1kDa) of the aqueous extract, and therefore we have put most of our research efforts in studying this fraction.

This project aims at continuing our search for LMW-compounds that contribute to the strong antioxidative effect found in herring. The work will mostly involve lipid oxidation studies in a well established fish mince model system. Analyses will be both chemical, colorimetric and sensorial.