Quality of farmed and wild sea bass lipids studied by 1H NMR: Usefulness of this technique for differentiation on a qualitative and a quantitative basis

Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy was employed to study the lipids of farmed and wild European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). This technique provided a great deal of detailed information on sea bass lipids composition and, once the spectra signals have been assigned, the simple observation of the spectra enables one to distinguish cultured from wild fish. This distinction is possible due to the presence in the former of high proportions of diunsaturated acyl groups, mainly linoleic. Furthermore, new approaches for quantitative characterization of sea bass lipids were developed. For the same season wild sea bass lipids contain not only higher molar percentages of omega-3 and of docosahexaenoic (DHA), but also higher concentrations of phosphatidylcholine and of cholesterol than farmed ones. However, in general, the absolute content of DHA and of eicosapentaenoic plus arachidonic (EPA + ARA) acyl groups as well as of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol, were reasonably higher in farmed than in wild sea bass fillets, due to the higher total lipid content of the former. The presence of omega-1 acyl groups in all farmed samples and in some of the wild specimens was shown. As far as we know, this is the first time that omega-1 acyl groups have been identified and quantified in fish lipids by 1H NMR.