Effect of Natural Additives on the Fatty Acid Signatures of Green Mussel P erna viridis L . in a Time‐Dependent Accelerated Shelf Life Study

The present study identified the freeze‐dried concentrate of green mussel to possess valuable nutritional properties with respect to long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. The freeze‐dried concentrate (C0) was stabilized with different ratios of naturally derived antioxidative oleoresins of Rosmarinus officinalis and Curcuma longa along with trace amounts of other natural additives to obtain four combinations (C1, C2, C3 and C4) and was subjected to accelerated shelf storage for 90 days (d90) to understand their role in retaining the desired nutritional composition. A threshold level of oleoresins of C. longa : R. officinalis (0.8:0.4%) was sufficient for optimum antioxidant activity, and further addition of endogenous antioxidants did have negative impacts on stability of the polyunsaturated fatty acid compositions of the green mussel concentrate. The combinations C2 and C4 effectively arrested the isomeric conversion of cis polyunsaturated fatty acids to their trans conformers at d0 and d90 than recorded in C0. Practical Applications The nonconjugated olefinic system in the long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in the marine products make them susceptible to oxidation, limiting the amount of time that such products can be stored on the shelf. The use of natural oleoresins in meat products and fried foods has been extensively researched and used in commercialized foods. The present work focused to study the use of natural antioxidative additives in increasing the shelf life of the freeze‐dried concentrate developed from green mussel Perna viridis and to retain the native form of unsaturated fatty acids, which are highly susceptible to oxidation. The study demonstrated that a combination of green mussel concentrate rich in long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and naturally derived antioxidative substances might result in nutritionally valuable functional food products.