True retention of nutrients upon household cooking of farmed portion-size European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.)

Each of ten batches of portion-size farmed European sea bass (overall number = 200, mean weight ± standard error = 312 ± 5 g; total length ± s.e. = 30.5 ± 0.3 cm) was randomly divided into four equally numbered subsamples (n = 5). Within batch, one subsample represented the raw reference (RW), while the others were allotted to oven broiling (OB), baking in aluminium foil (BF) or microwaving (MW), selected as mild cooking techniques and therefore among the preferred by Italian fish-eaters. Raw and cooked flesh composition as to proximates, fatty acids, selected minerals and water-soluble vitamins, as derived from OB, BF and MW, were combined with the relevant cooking yields to gain knowledge about the true retention values (TRVs) of these nutrients according to the “reference batch” approach, a well-established method for small-size seafood items as bivalve molluscs and crustaceans. Within the general context of high-yield cooking methods, BF proved to be the mildest, since it left the nutrient profile of sea bass flesh mostly unaffected compared to RW. The reference batch approach generated plausible TRVs for all the nutrients examined, most of which were significantly higher in BF than in OB, with MW data in between.

► Nutrients and true retentions on cooking (3 methods) in the flesh from farmed sea bass. ► The reference batch approach used to compute retentions as for bivalves and crustaceans. ► Nutrient profile mostly unchanged upon baking in Al foil compared to the raw flesh.