Facilitating detection, understanding production, and improving mitigation of undesired taste and odour compounds in aquaculture

The overall aim of the project FLAVOUR, is to detect, prevent and remove off-flavour and undesired odour in fish farmed in Recirculated Aquaculture Systems (RAS).

Off-flavour compounds, such as geosmin, are produced by microorganisms and give the fish an unpalatable taste, even at very low concentrations.

Today, the main strategy for remedying this problem is to depurate the fish in large quantities of clean water for 10–15 days.

The fish lose a significant amount of weight during this period, affecting the production efficiency in addition to the environmental effect of excessive water use.The project has three objectives: 1) Determine which microorganisms produce off-flavour compounds and how this is affected by environmental factors.

This will be done using an extensive sampling campaign at a several RAS facilities.

The analysis will result in recommendations on operational strategies to minimize the production of off-flavour compounds. 2) Develop novel technology for monitoring geosmin levels in water by combining new measurement technology with advanced biotechnology.

The goal is to have a technology for rapid and simple geosmin measurements ready by the end of the project. 3) Explore bioelectrochemical systems for application in aquaculture.

Bioelectrochemical systems is new technology that could minimize the production and improve the removal of off-flavour compounds from the water being recirclated at RAS facilities.