Development and Application of the Quality Index Method (QIM) for Farmed Tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) Stored Under Refrigeration

Salmonella spp. in Aquaculture: An Exploratory Analysis (Integrative Review) of Microbiological Diagnoses between 2000 and 2020

The present study aimed to characterize, through descriptive statistics, data from scientific articles selected in a systematic integrative review that performed a microbiological diagnosis of Salmonella spp. in aquaculture. Data were obtained from research articles published in the BVS, Scielo, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science databases. The selected studies were published between 2000 and 2020 on samples of aquaculture animal production (fish, shrimp, bivalve mollusks, and other crustaceans) and environmental samples of aquaculture activity (farming water, soil, and sediments). After applying the exclusion criteria, 80 articles were selected. Data such as country of origin, categories of fish investigated, methods of microbiological diagnosis of Salmonella spp., sample units analyzed and most reported serovars were mined. A textual analysis of the word cloud and by similarity and descending hierarchical classification with the application of Reinert's algorithm was performed using R® and Iramuteq® software. The results showed that a higher percentage of the selected articles came from Asian countries (38.75%). Fish was the most sampled category, and the units of analysis of the culture water, muscle and intestine were more positive. The culture isolation method is the most widespread, supported by more accurate techniques such as PCR. The most prevalent Salmonella serovars reported were S. Typhimurium, S. Weltevreden and S. Newport. The textual analysis showed a strong association of the terms "Salmonella", "fish" and "water", and the highest hierarchical class grouped 25.4% of the associated text segments, such as "aquaculture", "food" and "public health". The information produced characterizes the occurrence of Salmonella spp. in the aquaculture sector, providing an overview of recent years. Future research focusing on strategies for the control and prevention of Salmonella spp. in fish production are necessary and should be encouraged.

Sensory evaluation of fresh/frozen mackerel products: A review

Mackerel has received considerable attention in the global food market as one of the most important pelagic commercial fish species. The quality of mackerel is influenced by species, season, fishing area, nutritional status, catching method, handling, and storage. Due to the mackerel's perishability, its quality is mainly measured by sensory procedures. Although considerable effort has been made to explore quick and reliable quality analysis, developing a practical and scientific sensory evaluation of mackerel has been an active ongoing study area to meet the quality evaluation demand of the industry. Different sensory evaluation methods have been used to assess the mackerel fish quality, including Palatability and Spoilage test, Torry scheme, EU scheme, Quality Index Method, Catch damage index and Processed fish damage index, Affective test, Discriminative test, and Descriptive test. Each method has its strength and weakness. Despite mackerel sensory evaluation protocols having undergone partial harmonization, specific sample process needs to be carefully followed to minimize the change during sample preparation. This review summarizes the sensory evaluation methods in mackerel research, the factors affecting sensory evaluation, and then updates the latest advances in mackerel sensory evaluation and offers guidance for presenting its application in the mackerel chain. Also, each technique's advantages and limitations are discussed. In our opinion, the future trends for sensory evaluation of mackerel should be consumer-centric.

Fish Quality Index Method: Principles, weaknesses, validation, and alternatives-A review

Fish is a high nutritional value matrix of which production and consumption have been increasing in the last years. Advancements in the efficient evaluation of freshness are essential to optimize the quality assessment, to improve consumer safety, and to reduce raw material losses. Therefore, it is necessary to use rapid, nondestructive, and objective methodologies to evaluate the quality of this matrix. Quality Index Method (QIM) is a tool applied to indicate fish freshness through a sensory evaluation performed by a group of assessors. However, the use of QIM as an official method for quality assessment is limited by the protocol, sampling size, specificities of the species, storage conditions, and assessor's experience, which make this method subjective. Also, QIM may present divergences regarding the development of microorganisms and chemical analysis. In this way, novel quality evaluation methods such as electronic noses, electronic tongues, machine vision system, and colorimetric sensors have been proposed, and novel technologies such as proteomics and mitochondrial analysis have been developed. In this review, the weaknesses of QIM were exposed, and novel methodologies for quality evaluation were presented. The consolidation of these novel methodologies and their use as methods of quality assessment are an alternative to sensory methods, and their understanding enables a more effective fish quality control.