QUALITY EVALUATION OF WELS CATFISH SILURUS GLANIS FROM OUTDOOR FLOW-THROUGH AND INDOOR RECYCLING SYSTEMS

摘要

Wels (European) catfish, Silurus glanis L., is a high valued fish with a very long tradition in European pond aquaculture: It has white, boneless and very palatable flesh, containing low amount of fat, with high processing yield, good flavour and texture (Proteau et al., 1996). On the market, wels are sold as a whole and/or eviscerated fish, cut into skinned steaks and/or filleted. Wels suitability of very good growth performance in high stocking densities and ability to ingest artificial pelleted diets, led to its wider utilisation under conditions of intensive warm-water farming units and to its production increase. Thus the present study was focused on the comparison of quality of market-size wels catfish originating from two different (outdoor flow-through and indoor recycling) small-scale production units in Montpellier region (French Mediterranean).