Monitoring the Effects of Storage in Caviar from Farmed Acipenser transmontanus Using Chemical, SEM, and NMR Methods^†

The effects of storage at 4 °C on the quantity and quality of chemical components in the caviar from farmed Acipenser transmontanus have been analyzed by SEM, chemical methods, and NMR and MRI techniques. Particular attention has been focused on the lipid components, the distribution and mobility of which were strongly affected by the storage time. MRI and relaxation data indicated that lipids are endowed with two different mobility regimes, one slow (short T₁) and one fast (long T₁), both lengthening with the storage time. Chemical analysis assessed a total fat content that remained practically unchanged and a constant fatty acid composition during the total storage time. The combination of the two methods allowed one (a) to suppose that a mechanism of lipid hydrolysis (faster in unsalted than in salted eggs) is still occurring during storage of caviar at 4 °C for up to ≈4 months and (b) to exclude that an intensive oxidative process is active in the same storage period.

Keywords: Caviar; NMR; relaxation times; MRI; chemical analysis; SEM; fatty acids