Mr Trent D'Antignana

Contact Details

Key Responsibilities

• Lecturer
• Tuna quality project leader
• Manager of Product Quality and Value Adding
• Member of the marine/aquaculture cluster within the School

Teaching

• Aquaculture

Research

My primary research area is the effect of farm husbandry, stress and antioxidants on seafood product quality. My past research focus was on antioxidants and their role in prolonging the shelf life and flesh quality characteristics of southern bluefin tuna (SBT). I have also investigated the distribution of antioxidants in SBT carcasses, and compared the antioxidant levels in the flesh of SBT fed pelleted and baitfish diets. I have also investigated the effect of harvest stress on flesh quality and examined how different processing procedures influence the quality of seafood products. I am actively involved with the SBT industry and am currently developing a practical method of delivering supplements to SBT utilising meat marination technology to inject antioxidants in to baitfish, fed to tuna. If proven successful we will use this technology to trial other supplements in an attempt to reduce mortality and stress, increase growth and improve flesh quality.  I am also a consultant to the industry and our lab offers a quality assurance service to the tuna industry, measuring the fat and protein content of the baitfish fed to the tuna.

I am also the leader of the new product quality and value adding research team at the Lincoln Marine Science Centre and am involved in several Seafood CRC funded projects.  This includes, developing new seafood products for the Sydney Fish Market using under-utilized fish species and comparing the  quality characteristics of Australian sardines chilled using Flow ice® and refrigerated seawater. I am also involved in a project investigating the maturation and reproduction of SBT.

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