Blinded taste panel evaluations to determine if fish from near the oil sands are preferred less than fish from other locations in Alberta, Canada.
The oil sands industry is rapidly expanding surface mining and bitumen extraction operations near the Athabasca River in northeastern Alberta, Canada. There are anecdotal comments that the fish from the Athabasca River have an off-taste, implying that the oil sands operations are the cause. This study was done to determine if the taste of wild fishes caught near the Athabasca oil sands was less preferred than the taste of fishes collected from two other river basins in Alberta. In blinded experiments, consumer sensory panels, of 40 to 44 participants, tasted steamed samples of each of three fish species (walleye (Sander vitreus), northern pike (Esox lucius), and lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis)) from three different sources in Alberta (the Athabasca River, Buck Lake, and McGregor Lake). Data analyses showed that there was no evidence from the consumer preference rankings that the taste of the fish from the Athabasca River was preferred less than the taste of fish from two other water bodies in Alberta.
Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2P5.
Brenda
B
Barona
Rozlyn F
RF
Young
Phillip M
PM
Fedorak
Wendy V
WV
Wismer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000416:Alberta; D000818:Animals; D002170:Canada; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008906:Mining; D061329:Oil and Gas Fields; D045483:Rivers; D017747:Seafood / Q000145:classification*; D013649:Taste; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult
D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical