Fatty acid profiles of Sardina pilchardus muscle over the Iberian Atlantic coast and its potential use as a geographic fingerprint ; Perfis de ácidos gordos de músculo de Sardina pilchardus da costa Atlântica Ibérica e o seu potencial uso como indicador geográfico

The sardine (Sardina pilchardus) is a key species in Iberian fisheries due to its cultural and economic value. Finding robust tools allowing to trace their geographic origin is paramount for valorization and sustainable stock management. The objective of this work was to assess if sardine muscle’s fatty acid signature can be used to determine its geographical origin. Seven relevant landing ports in sardine’s fishing were selected along the Iberian Atlantic coast for the sampling of this study. The first analytical step was the optimization of the extraction protocol to analyze fatty acid profiles in different biological tissues of sardines, using GC-MS. These first analyses allowed to select sardine’s white muscle as the most suitable tissue for analysis and employ a simplified extraction process. Statistical analysis of the determined fatty acid profiles resulted in a minimum 90% of accuracy probability of correct geographical origin. Correct allocation increased to, at least, 97% when utilizing an optimal fatty acid selection. The fatty acids that most contributed to discriminate between locations were 22:1 n11, 20:1 n-9, 22:5 n-3, 20:5 n-3, and 16:4 n-1. Fatty acid profiles were used to calculate lipid indexes for sardine from different locations, allowing to discriminate between different geographic origins with a minimum of 57% correct group identification. These results improved when considering only two to three locations of origin. Overall, fatty acid profiling is an efficient tool to discriminate the geographic origin of sardines captured along the Iberian Atlantic coast. There is still, however, future work to be done to analyze the interannual variability and the geographical discrimination using a larger sampling group. ; A sardinha (Sardina pilchardus) é uma espécie chave nas pescarias Ibéricas devido ao seu valor cultural e económico. Encontrar ferramentas robustas que permitam rastrear a sua origem geográfica é essencial para a valorização e gestão dum stock sustentável. O objetivo deste trabalho ...