Lipid distribution and composition of commercially farmed atlantic salmon (salmosalar)

Skin, red and white muscle, belly flap, dorsal fat depot, backbone, head, visceral tissue and liver of commercially farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were analysed for total lipid content, lipid classes and fatty acid composition. The fat is deposited in a number of tissues and organs with the highest level in the dorsal fat depot (38.4% of wet weight), red muscle (27.2%) and belly flap (28.1%). The fat content in white muscle is 9.6% of wet weight. The lipid class distribution is nearly uniform throughout the fish body. The belly flap contains the highest amount of triacylglycerols (98.8% of total lipid) and white muscle and visceral tissue have the lowest levels, 93.3% and 93.1%, respectively. The variation in total saturates, monoenes, polyenes, n-6 and n-3 fatty acids was much less between tissues than the variation in total lipid content. In the edible part, the belly flap (16.7%) contained significantly lower levels of n-3 fatty acids than red (18.4%) and white muscle (19.7%) mainly due to lower level of 22: 6n-3 and 20: 5n-3 fatty acids.