Protein and Lipid Oxidation during Frozen Storage of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This study aimed at investigating protein and lipid oxidation during frozen storage of rainbow trout. Rainbow trout fillets were stored for 13 months at −20, −30, or −80 °C, and samples were analyzed at regular intervals for lipid and protein oxidation markers. Lipid oxidation was followed by measuring lipid hydroperoxides (PV), as well as secondary oxidation products (volatiles) using dynamic headspace GC-MS. Free fatty acids (FFA) were measured as an estimation of lipolysis. Protein oxidation was followed using the spectrophotometric determination of protein carbonyls and immunoblotting. Significant oxidation was observed in samples stored at −20 °C, and at this temperature lipid and protein oxidation seemed to develop simultaneously. FFA, PV, and carbonyls increased significantly for the fish stored at −20 °C, whereas the fish stored at −30 and −80 °C did not show any increase in oxidation during the entire storage period when these methods were used. In contrast, the more sensitive GC-MS method used for measurement of the volatiles showed that the fish stored at −30 °C oxidized more quickly than those stored at −80 °C. Detection of protein oxidation using immunoblotting revealed that high molecular weight proteins were oxidized already at t = 0 and that no new protein oxidized during storage irrespective of the storage time and temperature. The results emphasize the need for the development of more sensitive and reliable methods to study protein oxidation in order to gain more explicit knowledge about the significance of protein oxidation for food quality and, especially, to correlate protein oxidation with physical and functional properties of foods.