Fatty acid compositional dataset of Korean and Chinese farmed spotted seabass (Lateolabrax maculatus)

This dataset provides individual-level fatty acid compositional data for farmed spotted seabass (Lateolabrax maculatus) of Korean and Chinese origin, distributed in the Korean seafood market. The data were generated to support geographical origin authentication research and underlie the analyses reported in the associated manuscript, which developed a machine learning-based model to discriminate Korean from Chinese farmed spotted seabass using fatty acid profiling. A total of 60 fish muscle samples are included: 30 spring reference samples (15 Korean, 15 Chinese) and 30 independent validation samples spanning spring and summer (13 spring, 17 summer). Fatty acid content was determined by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) following the Korean Food Code, performed by an external accredited testing laboratory. For each sample, up to 36 individual fatty acids from a standard 37-component reference panel were quantified; fatty acids below the detection threshold are reported as zero. The dataset is organized into four worksheets: Reference_Absolute and Reference_Normalized (30 spring reference samples), and Validation_Absolute and Validation_Normalized (30 spring/summer validation samples), each reporting fatty acid content in both absolute concentration (g/100 g) and relative composition (% of total fatty acids). Each row corresponds to one fish sample and includes sample ID, country of origin, sampling season, and sample role (reference/validation) alongside the fatty acid values. This dataset can be reused to benchmark alternative chemometric or machine-learning approaches for seafood origin authentication, to compare fatty acid profiles of farmed spotted seabass against other aquaculture species, or to support meta-analyses of regional variation in fish lipid composition.