The Effects of Essential Oils Addition on the Quality of Wild and Farmed Sea Bream (Sparus aurata) Stored in Ice

Effect of Citrus aurantium juice as a disinfecting agent on quality and bacterial communities of striped catfish steaks stored at -20 °C

Sodium hypochlorite is generally used as a disinfectant in washing of freshwater fishes where the safety aspect of health is of concern. Although plant-based essential oils and synthetic chemical agents have been applied, they might contain toxic substances, are expensive and can cause undesirable quality. This research aims to fill the knowledge gap necessary to validate Citrus aurantium juice as a disinfecting agent for preserving striped catfish steaks at -20 °C for 28 days. Fifty (50) ppm sodium hypochlorite was used as a commercial disinfectant (control). The results showed that a negative color characteristic (higher a* and increased b*) was found in the control but not in striped catfish steaks immersed in C. aurantium juice (TM) on days 14 and 28. No significant differences were found in the peroxide value among the treatments on days 14 and 28 (P > 0.05). A lower accumulation of trichloroacetic acid soluble peptides was detected in TM but not in control, while total volatile basic nitrogen of all treatments was up to standard of fish quality during storage. Contrastingly, the total viable count of both treatments increased to >7.0 log CFU/g on day 28 which did not meet the edible limit of standard for freshwater fishes. The spoilage microbial community was observed on days 0 and 28 of storage which showed a decrease in relative abundance of Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Brochothrix, Lactococcus, Carnobacterium, Psychrobacter, and Vagococcus as found in TM on day 28, when compared to the control. Thus, these results implied that C. aurantium juice could replace sodium hypochlorite as an alternative disinfecting agent to control the microbiological spoilage and physico-chemical quality of striped catfish steaks.

Recent Developments in Seafood Packaging Technologies

Seafood products are highly perishable, owing to their high water activity, close to neutral pH, and high content of unsaturated lipids and non-protein nitrogenous compounds. Thus, such products require immediate processing and/or packaging to retain their safety and quality. At the same time, consumers prefer fresh, minimally processed seafood products that maintain their initial quality properties. The present article aims to review the literature over the past decade on: (i) innovative, individual packaging technologies applied to extend the shelf life of fish and fishery products, (ii) the most common combinations of the above technologies applied as multiple hurdles to maximize the shelf life of seafood products, and (iii) the respective food packaging legislation. Packaging technologies covered include: Modified atmosphere packaging; vacuum packaging; vacuum skin packaging; active food packaging, including oxygen scavengers; carbon dioxide emitters; moisture regulators; antioxidant and antimicrobial packaging; intelligent packaging, including freshness indicators; time–temperature indicators and leakage indicators; retort pouch processing and edible films; coatings/biodegradable packaging, used individually or in combination for maximum preservation potential.

Innovative Seafood Preservation Technologies: Recent Developments

Fish and fishery products are among the food commodities of high commercial value, high-quality protein content, vitamins, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids, which are beneficial to health. However, seafood products are highly perishable and thus require proper processing to maintain their quality and safety. On the other hand, consumers, nowadays, demand fresh or fresh-like, minimally processed fishery products that do not alter their natural quality attributes. The present article reviews the results of studies published over the last 15 years in the literature on: (i) the main spoilage mechanisms of seafood including contamination with pathogens and (ii) innovative processing technologies applied for the preservation and shelf life extension of seafood products. These primarily include: high hydrostatic pressure, natural preservatives, ozonation, irradiation, pulse light technology and retort pouch processing.

Natural products with preservative properties for enhancing the microbiological safety and extending the shelf-life of seafood: A review

Seafood is highly perishable, presenting a rapid loss of its quality soon after capture. Temperature is the critical parameter that impacts on seafood shelf-life reduction, allowing the growth of foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms. In recent years, the search by additional methods of preserving seafood has increased, able to ensure quality and safety. Several natural preservatives have highlighted and gained considerable attention from the scientific community, consumers, industry, and health sectors as a method with broad action antimicrobial and generally economical. Natural preservatives, from different sources, have been widely studied, such as chitosan from animal sources, essential oils, and plant extracts from a plant source, lactic acid bacteria, and bacteriocins from microbiological sources and organic acid from different sources, all with great potential for use in seafood systems. This review focuses on the natural preservatives studied in seafood matrices, their forms of application, concentrations usually employed, their mechanisms of action, factors that interfere in their use and the synergistic effect of the interactions among the natural preservatives, with a focus for maintenance of quality and ensure of food safety.

Differential roles of ice crystal, endogenous proteolytic activities and oxidation in softening of obscure pufferfish (Takifugu obscurus) fillets during frozen storage

Obscure pufferfish (Takifugu obscurus) softening during frozen storage remains to be solved. This study was therefore aimed to provide explanations by differentiate the roles of three potential factors in fish softening. The influences of ice crystal, endogenous proteolytic activities, and oxidization were distinguished by treatment of fish fillets with liquid nitrogen, iodoacetic acid, and tea polyphenol with ascorbic acid, respectively. This distinguishing method was verified to be effective by investigation in ice crystal microstructure, endogenous proteolytic activities and lipid and protein oxidation. In comparison of three factors, it showed that the shear force of fish fillets with smaller ice crystals was about 15.5% and 13.7% higher than those with the inhibition of endogenous proteolytic activities and oxidation respectively, indicating the dominant role of ice crystal in frozen fish softening. Besides, quality decline of frozen fish was initially fast and then slowed down during the storage.

The effects of edible chitosan-based coatings on flavor quality of raw grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) fillets during refrigerated storage

This study investigated the effects of chitosan-based coatings on flavor retention of refrigerated grass carp fillets by using various indicators: free amino acids (FAA), nucleotides, trimethylamine (TMA), volatile profile, sensory quality, and electronic nose analysis. The results indicated that chitosan-based coatings contributed to the significant reduction of off-flavor compounds, such as TMA, hypoxanthine (Hx) and histidine, and accumulation of inosine monophosphate (IMP) and umami-associated FAA. GC-MS analysis showed 23 volatile organic compounds, including many C₅-C₉ aldehydes and alcohols in the fresh fillets. The coating treatments, especially chitosan-clove bud essential oil composite coatings, sharply reduced the relative content of off-odor volatiles, such as hexanal, octanal and 1-octen-3-ol. According to the results of the sensory evaluation and electronic nose analyses, chitosan coating combined with glycerol monolaurate and clove bud essential oil was a promising method to improve the edibility of grass carp fillets by maintaining flavor quality during refrigerated storage.

Recent advances in methods and techniques for freshness quality determination and evaluation of fish and fish fillets: a review

The freshness quality of fish plays an important role in human health and the acceptance of consumers as well as in international fishery trade. Recently, with food safety becoming a critical issue of great concern in the world, determination and evaluation of fish freshness is much more significant in research and development. This review renovates and concentrates recent advances of evaluating methods for fish freshness as affected by preharvest and postharvest factors and highlights the determination methods for fish freshness including sensory evaluation, microbial inspection, chemical measurements of moisture content, volatile compounds, protein changes, lipid oxidation, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) decomposition (K value), physical measurements, and foreign material contamination detection. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of these methods and techniques are compared and discussed and some viewpoints about the current work and future trends are also presented.