Reliability of LipidSearch software identification and its application to assess the effect of dry salting on the long-chain free fatty acid profile of tilapia muscles

[Display omitted] •Effect of dry salting on the long-chain fatty acids of tilapia muscles was studied.•LipidSearch software identification for fatty acid profile were relatively reliable.•Tilapia muscles under low salts might have stable and similar fatty acids changes.•Fatty acid amounts decreased and then increased with time in the dry salting process. Dry salting has important effects on food lipids. In this work, the reliability of LipidSearch software identification and its application to assess the effect of dry salting on the long-chain free fatty acid profile of tilapia muscles were studied by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Q-Extractive Orbitrap mass spectrometry and LipidSearch software. Compared with the standard reference identification method, the LipidSearch software identification method was suggested to be a reliable identification method for long-chain free fatty acid identification. During the dry salting process, tilapia muscles with low muscle-to-salt mass ratios of 3–8 might have stable and similar free fatty acid profile changes, and the free fatty acid amounts decreased and then increased with time. This work could provide useful information to evaluate the development and application of LipidSearch software as well as a way to analyze the effect of dry salting on the free fatty acids change of aquatic products.