Sensory qualities of the New Zealand abalone, Haliotis iris, reared in offshore structures on artificial diets

A trained taste-testing panel was used to assess taste differences in cultured New Zealand abalone (Haliotis iris Martyn 1784) fed two different artificial diets (Coast Biologicals and Makara™). The trained taste-testing panel could not detect any difference in taste between abalone grown on the two artificial diets. Any difference that might have been produced by the artificial diets could have been masked by abalone consuming drift algae entering their grow out structures. A consumer panel was used to determine whether meat of cultivated abalone was preferred over that of wild caught abalone. The panel indicated a preference in texture and overall acceptability for cultivated abalone fed on artificial diets over abalone caught from a locally occurring wild population. No preference for flavour of wild or cultivated abalone was detected. Neither texture nor flavour related positively to the overall acceptability of abalone.