Quality assessment of seven Mediterranean fish species during storage on ice

The following seven Mediterranean fish species, bogue (Boops boops), chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus collias), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), Mediterranean hake (Merluccius mediterraneus), sardine (Sardine mediterraneus), striped mullet (Mullus barbatus) were assessed for quality changes during a week of ice storage. All fish were stored whole in ice. Fish tester readings of all fish species were found to be below 35 by the end of ice storage. The pH was not significantly changed (p>0.05), while thiobarbituric acid number (TBA) and formaldehyde (FA) content were significantly increased (p less than or equal to 0.05) by the end of ice storage of all fish species. Sensory evaluation showed that better storage life was observed for bogue, sardine and striped mullet by using the European Community (EC) freshness grading scheme of raw fish and for bogue and Mediterranean hake by using sensory panel evaluation of cooked fish fillets. Mediterranean hake may require a different descriptive scheme than the current EC freshness grading scheme. (C) 1998 Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.