Resveratrol as a Bioactive Compound for Edible Fish Muscle Quality: Emerging Evidence, Putative Mechanisms, and Future Perspectives

Resveratrol is a plant-derived stilbene polyphenol that has attracted interest as a potential dietary additive for improving edible fish muscle quality. This review summarizes current evidence on pre-harvest dietary resveratrol supplementation and its possible effects on nutritional composition, flavor-related biochemical traits, and physicochemical quality of fish muscle or fillets. We distinguish nutritional quality, including proximate composition, amino-acid profiles, and fatty-acid composition, from flavor-related and sensory-relevant proxies, such as free amino acids, inosine monophosphate, volatile precursors, color, pH, water-holding capacity, and texture. Direct evidence from edible fish muscle remains limited and fragmented, and most available studies rely on biochemical or instrumental endpoints rather than trained-panel sensory evaluation or consumer acceptance testing. Reported effects suggest species- and dose-dependent changes in muscle protein deposition, amino-acid accumulation, fatty-acid composition, pH, cooking or drip loss, and texture-related traits. Putative mechanisms may involve antioxidant protection, muscle fiber remodeling, lipid metabolism, endoplasmic-reticulum stress, and delivery-dependent bioavailability; however, many mechanistic links are still inferred from hepatic tissues, mammalian models, or in vitro systems. Future studies should combine standardized dose–response feeding trials with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)-based volatile profiling, lipid and protein oxidation indices, instrumental texture analysis, sensory evaluation, and shelf-life testing before resveratrol can be recommended as a robust feed-based strategy for improving edible fish muscle quality.