Fish & Meat Full Notes

FS406: Meat, Poultry and Fish
Technology
Fish Technology Lecture 1: Overview
Dr. Nichrous G. Mlalila

BSc FST, MSc LiSBE (FSB), PhD, Cert. (Nano and Nanosensors, Fish Production
and Ocean Governance)
Outlines
➢ Introduction
➢ Structure of fish
➢ Composition of fish
➢ Preparation of fish after capture
➢ Procedures to ensure fish Quality evaluation
➢ Fish processing and preservation
➢ Design of fish processing facilities
➢ Production of value-added products
➢ Waste management in fish processing
Overview
• Fisheries are major source of protein

>15% of animal protein
• Capture fisheries have peaked
~90 million tons per year.
• Aquaculture sector growing
> 50 million tons per year (production)
> 60 billion USD (value)
• Asia dominates production
>90% (by weight) and > 80% of (by value)
• Trade at record levels
> 55.2 Billion USD in 2000
> 80% of imports by Developed Countries
Source: State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002 /

Introduction
➢ Fishing is one of the oldest occupations of man.
➢ The global fish industry is classified into capture fisheries and
aquaculture
➢ Aquaculture is a lead contributor of fisheries products
accounting for 53% of total fish production.
➢ It is playing an important role in the economy of the country.
As it helps in augmenting food supply, generating employment,
raising nutritional level and earning foreign exchange by
export.
Introduction
➢ Fish is a highly perishable item (high moisture and
nutrient) and reportedly, bulk of the catch is sun-dried
after salt curing which is certainly an unhygienic
process.
➢ The main class of fish are fresh and marine waters
World Fisheries Production 1950-2006
Production and Use Statistics
Source: State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002

FAO http://www.fao.org/sof/sofia/
World Fisheries Production
❑ World fisheries production (including both capture fisheries and
aquaculture) has increased steadily since the 1950s and reached over
140 million metric tons in 2006.
❑ China is the largest producer at 51.5 million tons in 2006 (of 140 million
tons total), 2/3 of which is produced by aquaculture (rather than wild
capture). Increases in global production since the mid-1980s have
been almost entirely due to increases in aquaculture production.
Aquaculture contributed 47% to total global production in 2006.
❑ Note: All capture and landing values are reported in “metric tons.” A
metric ton is larger than an “English ton” and is approximately equal to
2200 pounds.
Aquaculture
Fish farming has the
potential to reduce the
pressure on wild-caught fish
Farmed organisms that do

not consume fish meal are
most sustainable
Aquaculture
❑ China and India are the world leaders in aquaculture production. Over 200 fish and shellfish species are
grown in aquaculture.
❑ While freshwater fish such as carp and their relatives dominate global production, the most common marine
species include shrimp, salmon, oysters, clams and mussels.
❑ In the U.S., 5 of the top 10 species (shrimp, salmon, catfish, tilapia and clams) consumed in 2004 were at
least partially produced in aquaculture operations.
❑ While aquaculture has the potential to reduce pressure on wild-caught fish, this has not yet been realized.
Ironically, it may do just the opposite, particularly when fish at higher trophic levels are raised such as
bluefin tuna (shown here) or salmon.
❑ These fish require a diet that contains animal protein. When farmed fish are fed fish meal, fishing effort is
often required to get enough food to feed these captive fish. To feed fish and shrimp, growers typically rely
on wild-caught ocean fish.
❑ For example, about 3 metric tons of wild-caught fish are required to produce 1 metric ton of farmed shrimp
or salmon.
Aquaculture
❑ Additionally, large-scale aquaculture operations often replace coastal ecosystems such as estuaries, tidal
flats and mangrove swamps.
❑ These coastal ecosystems often play a key role in the life cycle of other marine fish species.
❑ Aquaculture operations also may release a large amount of nutrient rich effluent into natural waterways and
promote disease and parasites in native fish populations.
❑ Native salmon that migrate past salmon pens, for example, have been shown to carry a higher parasite load
of sea lice.
❑ Despite these shortcomings, aquaculture is likely to play an increasingly important role in meeting the ever-
increasing global demand for seafood.
❑ Farmed organisms that do not consume fish meal hold the most promise for a sustainable fishery – e.g.,
mussels, clams, tilapia (an herbivorous fish).
Trends in World Aquaculture Production 1970 -
2004
Classification of fish
Classified by Fresh water Salt water Farmed e.g., mussels
Habitat e.g., trout, Nile (a) Demersal e.g.,
perch, tilapia, cod
catfish (b) Pelagic e.g.,
herring
Classified by Round e.g., cod Flat e.g., plaice
Shape
Classified by Oily fish e.g., White fish e.g., Shellfish
Nutritive Value herring, cod, haddock, (a) Crustaceans e.g.,
mackerel, plaice, sole, whiting lobster, prawn
trout, salmon (b) Molluscs e.g.,
mussels oysters
Categories of Fish
Fresh water – from lakes and rivers; Rainbow trout, lake trout, channel
catfish, yellow perch and other lesser used species. Channel catfish
are extensively farmed and their feed:gain may be 1:1 or better
because they get food from the water in addition to the feed they are
fed.
Ocean (marine) – over 50 species are used
•Pelagic – near the surface of oceans and seas; herring, mackerel,
salmon, tuna, sardines, anchovies, etc. This category includes many of
the fatty fishes, some of which have as much as 20% fat in their
muscles.
•Demersal – at depths; cod, haddock, whiting, flat fish such as flounder
and halibut, ocean perch (and the shellfish). Usually contain 5% or less
fat with 1% or less in their muscles.
Contamination, Food Allergens, and Foodborne Illness
Components of Fish
Composition of fish
Class Protein Fat Carb. Vitamins Minerals Water
Oily 18% 15% 0% ADB 2% 65%

Iodine, Iron, and
Calcium if tinned
Shell 15% 2.5% 0% B 2% 79%

Iodine/Iron
White 17% 0% 0% B 1% 80%

Iodine/Iron
Nutritional Benefits of Seafood Consumption
❑ Seafood (finfish and shellfish), whether wild or farmed, is a protein food with high
biological value.
❑ Seafood is also a good source of essential vitamins (A, B3, B6, B12, and D) and
minerals (calcium, iron, selenium, zinc, potassium, iodine).
❑ It is low in saturated fat and a major source of the essential n-3 very long chain fatty
acids (FAs), such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C 22:6 n-3) and eicosapentaenoic
acid (EPA; C 20:5 n-3), along with many other essential nutrients
Nutritional Benefits of Seafood Consumption
Lipids
❑ They occur in fish as two broad groups.
❑ The first consists of triacylglycerols (triglycerides) and is the main form in which
energy resources are stored.
❑ The second lipid group, mostly phospholipids and cholesterol, is an essential
component of cell walls, mitochondria and other sub-cellular structures.
❑ Lipid content sustains the classification of fish and fishery products into
categories: lean, if [lipids]<5% (e.g., sole, cod, hake and crustaceans); semi-fat,
if [lipids] range 5-10% (e.g., turbot and scabbard fish); and fat when
[lipids]>10% at least during a part of the year (e.g., sardine, tuna and salmon).
Lipids
Composition of fish
❑ Fat (or blue) fish are rich in long-chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), that are
nutritionally valuable (e.g., eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA, 20:5n-3; docosapentaenoic
acid, DPA, 22:5n-3; and docosahexaenoic acid, DHA, 22:6n-3) but highly susceptible
to hydrolysis and oxidation (leading to rancidity), that produce a number of by-
products (aldehydes and ketones) that have characteristic smell and flavor.
❑ Fish fats are more unsaturated than the fats of either red or fowl meats
contributing to be highly prone to post-mortem deterioration due to autolithic (A),
microbiological (M) and chemical (Q) phenomena. Therefore, fish fats oxidize
more readily, causing rancid odors and flavors. Fish and shellfish have a shorter
refrigerator and freezer life because of this increased fat oxidation. The greatest
problem during freezer storage usually is the development of fat rancidity.
Composition of fish
❑ The lipids in the edible part of fish are important to the food scientist in
three respects.
✓ Firstly, any oily deposits noticeably influence the sensation of the
cooked flesh in the mouth of the eater.
✓ Secondly, fish lipids, as is now widely recognised, are very beneficial
to the health of the consumer. The beneficial substances in fish oils
are the polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid,
which has 20 carbon atoms in the chain and 5 double-bonds (written
20:5), and also the fatty acid dodecahexaenoic acid (22:6).
✓ flesh lipids contribute to the flavour of the fish. The lipids themselves
have a slight taste, but of greater importance is their propensity to
develop an off-flavour in the frozen state. This is caused by
atmospheric oxidation, especially of the unsaturated phospholipids.
Proteins
Composition of fish
❑ The proteins in seafood contain several essential amino acids that are a
dietary requirement for humans.
❑ Fish generally contain between 15% and 23% protein in a form that is
highly bioavailable and thus both easy to digest and readily utilized
❑ The favorable protein content found in seafood, especially as it is

accompanied by low saturated fat concentrations, makes it a good
alternative to other meat products, such as beef and chicken.
Composition
Carbohydrates
of fish
➢ The nature of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are stored in the liver as
glycogen, a polysaccharide built of glucose units.
➢ On arrival, it may be used at once or temporarily re-converted into
glycogen. Thus both glucose and glycogen are found in muscle, but only
glucose is found in the blood.
➢ Dynamics. Since muscular activity uses glucose as its source of energy,
active fish maintain higher levels of glucose in their blood than do
sluggish fish.
➢ There is more glycogen in the red muscle of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
reared in a swimming raceway than in that of inactive salmon from a
cage.
➢ This has important consequences for the texture of cultured fish.
Composition of fish
Minerals
➢ A diet low in minerals is recommended for patients with heart trouble,
therefore the minerals present in the edible parts of fish are of interest.
The total mineral contents of the flesh of marine and freshwater fish are
not markedly different, although trace elements such as boron, bromine
and lithium, are more plentiful in the former.
➢ Since connective tissue is much richer in sodium than is contractile
muscle, the concentration of sodium at the tail end of cod is twice that
of the head end, containing as it does many more of the connective
tissue septa per unit length.
➢ The gutted cod kept in melting ice rapidly lose sodium from the flesh,
and that potassium loss, negligible at first, steadily increases as time
passes.
Nutritive value
➢Protein: HBV, Actin, Myosin.
➢Fat: white fish- none; oily fish-
unsaturated + omega 3 fatty acids;
shellfish, low fat, high cholesterol.
➢Carbohydrate: none, serve with
carbohydrate rich food.
➢Vitamins: B-group all fish; Vitamin C
oysters only; Vitamins A&D oily fish +
stored in liver of cod etc.
➢Minerals: Iron in all fish but less than
meat; Iodine in sea fish; calcium and
phosphorus in canned fish and fish with
edible bones e.g. sardines
➢Water: 65%-80% depends on type of fish
Dietetic value
➢Versatile, tasty, quick to cook.
➢HBV protein – healthy meat substitute especially teenagers, child,
pregnant women.
➢Unsaturated fat and omega 3 means its good for those with heart
disease and high cholesterol.
➢White fish low energy food good for low calorie diets.
➢White fish easily digested therefore good for invalids and elderly.
➢Iodine in sea fish prevents goitre.
➢Nutritional convenience food when canned or frozen in
breadcrumbs, batter or sauce.
➢Lacks carbohydrates. and Vitamin C. Serve with starchy food and
salad/vegetables.
Components With Health-promoting Functions
➢Research and development work is being carried out
aimed at preparing these compounds as functional food
ingredients or as nutraceuticals—isolated bioactive
materials that can find various applications.
➢Among them are fish collagen and gelatins, as well as

protein hydrolysates containing bioactive peptides with
angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity,
calcium absorption accelerating properties, and
hypocholesterolemic, antioxidative, and α-glucosidase
inhibitory activities.
Components With Health-promoting Functions
➢Additionally, chitin and chitosan, as well as chitosan
oligosaccharides, can be used as nutraceuticals because of
their function as a dietary fiber supplement and their
reported role as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory,
antioxidant, and anticarcinogenic agents.
➢Fish bones may be utilized for producing bioactive calcium
substances..
Questions?
28
Technology
Fish Technology 2: Factors Affecting Seafood Safety and Properties

Fish quality dynamics
❑ Seafood prone to wide variations owing to its biological diversity
(species, feeding habits, sex, maturity cycles, age, size), its origin (fishing
ground/aquaculture location), and method of capture/harvesting.
❑ These variations affect the quality attributes (appearance, texture,
flavor, nutritional value) of individual raw seafood species.
❑ Differences in composition within a species may be the cause of
secondary influences on quality
❑ This specificity coupled with initial processing (whole, eviscerated,
peeled, deveined, filleted), if any, prior to cold or frozen storage aboard
the fishing vessel, influences the raw fish marketability and consumers’
acceptability.
❑ Unlike pure chemical substances, which always have the same composition,
the musculature of a fish enfolds a variety of constantly changing
interactive systems.
❑ Basic quality of the seafood at the time of capture relate quality
parameters or descriptors, such as texture and other sensory quality
dependent on the proximate composition, contents of specific chemical
compounds (e.g., fatty acids), hazardous substances (trace metals, toxic
organics), and tainting, either to specific abiotic factors of the marine
environment or to the general status (level) of marine pollution i.e., the
water quality at harvest
❑ The quality and safety of seafood are shaped by environmental (abiotic and
biotic) factors that influence the internal (genetic, physiological, and
immunological) characteristics of organisms being used in seafood manufacture.
❑ The main causes of composition variation in fish are:
➢ Biotic Environmental Factors
➢ Fish species and muscle types
➢ Physiological state and Sexual Maturity
➢ Pre-slaughter starvation and Handling stress
➢ Food availability
➢ Seasonal Changes and Water Temperature
➢ Wild, Farm-reared, and ocean-ranched Fishes
➢ Fishing Areas and Depth
➢ Antagonistic interspecific interactions
❑ The main causes of composition variation in fish are:
➢ Abiotic Environmental Factors
➢ Water temperature
➢ Salinity
➢ Nutrients Composition of Seawater
➢ Contents of dissolved oxygen (DO)
❑ The environmental factors can also be divided into :
➢ physiological effects-controlling (which decide on the metabolic rates),
➢ limiting (which constrain maximum metabolism),
➢ lethal (which inhibit metabolism),
➢ masking (which increase obligatory metabolic activity), and
➢ directive (which release and unload metabolism by controlling responses to external
influences)
Fish species and muscle types
❑ There is a difference between fish species living at different temperatures.
❑ Fish myosins from fish species living in warm water and hot water contain higher
proportions of Gly but less Pro than cold-water fishes in their primary amino acid
sequence.
❑ In addition, myosins in hot-water fishes and warm-water fishes have a high probability of
forming coiled-coil structures around the COOH-terminal end of the rod, which enable
them to adapt to a living environment with relatively higher temperatures than cold-
water fishes
❑ In the same fish, the red muscle fibers contain more PUFAs, more myoglobin, as well as
more trimethylamine oxide, which make them less stable compared with the white
muscle.
❑ The red muscle is firmer than the white muscle in the raw salmon flesh but this difference
is not significant in heated samples.
Physiological state and Sexual Maturity
❑ The quality of marine organisms at capture is highly dependent on the gonad maturation
stage
❑ Water temperatures determine the gonad maturation, spawning season, larval
development, and fish dispersal
❑ When captured during the spawning season, specimens with between 5 and 35% fat can
be found together.
❑ This causes severe problems because in parallel with fat content other parameters such as
water content and the concentrations of lipophilic organic pollutants may also vary
❑ The after-spawning loss of protein is in regard more to the sarcoplasmic proteins than the
myofibrillar ones.
❑ During the period of intensive feeding, the myofibrillar proteins regenerate faster
❑ A sexually mature fish are much poorer in quality as a seafood product than a “bright”
(non-sexually mature)
Physiological state and Sexual Maturity
❑ During spawning fish are mature sexually, and those physical changes are dramatic (e.g.,
darker skin, paler/softer meat)
❑ In the male specimen, maturation of gonads leads to higher loss of lipids, while females
lose more protein
❑ In Fatty species, the fat content increases from a few percent wet weight just after
spawning to 20%–30% in the period of intensive feeding.
❑ In lean fish, sexual maturity correlates with a decrease in the concentration of protein and
an increase in the contents of water in the muscles
❑ Variation in the Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), a pelagic swarm fish. Its fillets can
contain a fat content of 35% pre-spawning and only 5% post-spawning.
Fish quality
Seasonal Changes and Water Temperature
dynamics
❑ All life processes proceed faster in warm than in cold water
❑ The quality differences of most species are dependent on seasonal changes in water
temperature
❑ Water temperature affects the quality of the fish due to decrease in ATP and glycogen and
increase of lactate accumulation during postmortem storage
❑ Water temperatures determine the gonad maturation, spawning season, larval
development, and fish dispersal
❑ Studies suggested that there are at least two types of myosin in the muscle that are
seasonally dependent, and the summer-type myosin is much more stable than the winter-
type.
❑ With an increase in the environment temperature, the proportion of summer-type isomer
increases and dominates in the summer season
❑ Expression of winter-type myosin increases from summer to winter and is the dominant type
of myosin during the winter season.
Seasonal Changes and Water Temperature
❑ This expression of myosin isomers with different thermal stabilities as a result of
temperature acclimation/seasonal changes was also observed with common carp
❑ Also, animals inhabiting cold water frequently develop at a slower rate, live longer,
and grow to a larger size, compared to warm-water forms
❑ Water temperature affects the efficiency with which animals utilize their food and
thus indirectly influences both the growth rate and tissue quality; a measure of that
process is called the food conversion efficiency (FCE)
❑ The fatty acid residues of phospholipids of tropical fish are more saturated than
those of cold-water fish ie. the cold-water fish are rich in unsaturated fatty acids
❑ The ratio of (n-3)/(n-6) increase with latitude: it was much higher in Antarctic (cold-
water) fish than in temperate and tropical species
Fishing Areas and Depth
❑ The enzymatic activity per gram of skeletal muscle decreases exponentially with
increasing minimal depth of fish occurrence
❑ The activities of lactate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase in active pelagic swimmers
are much higher than in deep-living sit-and-wait fish
❑ The content of protein is significantly lower and that of water is slightly higher in deep-
living fishes’ skeletal muscle than in shallow-living fish, while, on average, lactate
dehydrogenase activity is fivefold higher in the shallow-living fish
❑ Area of harvest also seems to play an indirect role in seafood quality via the differences
in environmental conditions (food type and availability, oceanographic regime) the
seafood organisms are subjected to
❑ Estuaries are feeding grounds for numerous marine fish and has high nutritive value
Food availability
❑ Food availability is one of the most important variables controlling the status of a fish or
shellfish population.
❑ Food deficiency, brought about by various large- or local-scale causative agents
(oceanographic variability, e.g., temperature changes; biotic interactions, e.g.,
competition) may have serious consequences for populations affected, more severe
inter- and intraspecific competition as well as increased mortality being just some of the
effects
❑ Restricted food availability for the fish larvae results in poor larval condition, which in
turn impinges on recruitment and condition of adults
Wild, Farm-reared, and ocean-ranched Fishes
❑ With the demand for more fish products and proteins, the proportion of fish from
aquaculture is increasing.
❑ Wild fish usually contains less fat than fish from aquaculture.
❑ Wild cod also has a different protein expression pattern than farmed cod, which could
cause differences in postmortem muscle tenderization.
❑ Ocean-ranched salmon (a branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine
organisms in the open ocean or in an enclosed section of the ocean) contains higher
levels of salt-soluble protein and has significantly higher water-holding capacity than
farmed fish.
❑ The muscle is firmer in farmed salmon than in ocean-ranched salmon, due to the fact that
myofibrillar protein aggregation and collagen content are relatively higher in farmed fish.
Pre-slaughter starvation and Handling stress
❑ Pre-slaughter starvation and handling stress are observed to have significant effects on
the chemical composition of fish muscle and its protein functionalities.
❑ Starvation causes the increase of intermolecular crosslinks in collagens, resulting in an
increase in the insoluble fraction of collagen.
❑ This increase in collagen crosslinks, together with the change in muscle composition
(increase in the relative ratio of collagen compared with myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic
protein content), cause Atlantic salmon and brown trout muscle hardening, with shear
strength significantly higher in starved specimens than in the equivalent non-starved lots.
❑ Pre-slaughter handling stress causes the denaturation of myofibrillar proteins, which has
negative effects on the texture properties of muscle and results in a more rapid softening
of flesh during postmortem tenderization.
Antagonistic interspecific interactions
❑ Density-dependent growth rate and constrained foraging, which affects animals at the
bottom of the stack owing to reduced mobility and suppressed ability to access food.
❑ Therefore, high stocking densities could result in reduced growth, even with the ad
libitum feeding applied in cultures.
❑ The potential outcomes include lower meat quality
Water Salinity
❑ An increase in the concentration of amino acids in the flesh is caused by higher
seawater salinity, however, it may affect the taste of fish meat
❑ Reduction of salinity induce organoleptic quality of seafoods by absorbing off-flavors
from water and sediment
❑ The total content of non-protein nitrogenous compounds in the muscles is a good
indicator of the influence of the salinity of the environment on the fish organism
❑ The salinity of the environment also affects the composition of fish lipids.
❑ The contents of the polyenoic C:18 fatty acid residues is consistently higher, and that of
C:20 and C:22 acids is lower in freshwater fish than in sea fish.
❑ In migratory fish, the fatty acid composition of lipids changes in the course of spawning
migrations
Contents of dissolved oxygen
❑ As a limiting factor, DO may be critical for the occurrence and functioning of
commercially important marine species, and thus can be regarded as a factor crucial for
seafood quality
❑ DO content below 5.0 mg dm−3 resulted in depressed growth of fish
Nutrient Composition of Seawater
❑ Covers all those compounds that are indispensable for primary production availability
via the marine trophic chain
❑ Concentrations of certain elements (e.g., Ca, Mg, Na, K, and Sr) in fish bones were found
to vary among different locations inhabiting riverine, estuarine, open coast, and marine
environments
❑ Changes in the mineral composition of tissues lead to various dysfunctions; for example,
magnesium deficiency reduces growth or causes weight loss, and, eventually, high
mortality
❑ Once a certain nutrient level is exceeded, some negative signs in the marine
environment appear, which may impinge negatively on the quality of marine organisms
useful for humans
❑ Therefore, major nutrients contribute—positively or negatively—to processes affecting
the seafood quality by affecting the structural characteristics of soft tissue
Quality Aspects of Seafoods
◼ There are two aspects of food quality.
◼ The first, which can be evaluated using psychophysical methodology,
reflects the characteristic impression perceived by a person that
consumes or tastes a food
Food Involved
product prepared and served under habitual
Common Symptoms
conditions.
◼ The other understanding of food quality is that of the sum of a large
number of physically, biologically, or chemically measurable properties
(attributes) determining the degree of excellence.
◼ These attributes indicate the extent to which the product meets various
requirements and standards that finally contribute to the consumer’s
satisfaction
3-11
Quality Aspects of Seafoods
❑ The most important factors of fishing techniques deciding on the properties of the
catch are the mechanical effects of the fishing gear, time between capture and hauling
on board, and handling of the fish on the vessel
❑ Captured fish may stay in the water for up to a few days, as in gillnets, getting stressed
or exhausted, or being dragged for a few hours along the sea bottom the catch gets
bruised and contaminated with the gut content and mud.
❑ Fish captured by trap may swim freely within the trap for hours, while handline caught
fish is usually brought onboard within minutes.
❑ These various conditions have an impact on the rate of metabolic processes in the
muscles.
❑ Generally, rapid killing and bleeding after capture increases the time to onset of rigor
and thus the shelf life of the refrigerated fish
Quality Characteristics of Fresh Fish
❑ The characteristics of fresh fish are:
➢ Shining, iridescent surface covered with a nearly transparent,
uniformly and thinly spread slime.
➢ Eyes are bulging, clear, full and bright with a jet black pupil and
transparent cornea
➢ Gills are bright, red and covered with clear shine and free from
visibleslime.
➢ Flesh is soft and flabby, tending to retain finger indentations
➢ Flesh odor is sea water smell or laky in addition pleasant,
margarine like odor in case of fatty fish, not foul.
➢ The odour of the gills and belly cavity
Quality Characteristics of Fresh Fish
❑ The characteristics of fresh fish are:
➢ The appearance of the belly walls. Flesh is firm and elastic.
➢ Scales are complex, shinny and intact.
➢ Color is bright and shiny.
➢ Belly walls are undamaged.
➢ The presence or absence of rigor mortis or death stiffening
➢ Fish sinks if placed in water.
➢ Flesh is firm and elastic.
Pre-harvest Quality Practices
From the point of view of seafood quality, the fish receiving the boat must be
made ready to receive them properly:
➢ Fish holds must be watertight and impervious to entry by fuel, lubricants, or
bilgewater.
➢ Fish holds must be properly insulated, especially near the engine room.
➢ Fish holds and all fish contact surfaces (chutes, conveyors, etc.) must be
constructed of food-grade, non-porous material, such as fiberglass,
aluminum, stainless steel, wood coated with food-grade paint, or high-
density plastic.
Pre-harvest Quality Practices
From the point of view of seafood quality, the fish receiving the boat must be
made ready to receive them properly:
➢ Fish holds and all fish contact surfaces are never to be constructed of bare
wood, unsealed polyurethane insulation, or any other material that is difficult
to clean and sanitize.
➢ Hatch combings and covers must be adequate to prevent the entry of water,
contaminants, heat, or sunlight.
➢ Fishing gear and deck equipment must be arranged so that the fish are
moved from the fishing gear to the chilled fish hold gently and promptly
Post-harvest Quality Practices
➢ Some good practices that should be followed before or during
processing are:
✓ Ice the fish immediately after they are caught to lower their
temperature.
✓ Remove the gills and internal organs.
✓ Avoid mishandling (prevent skin and flesh damage).
✓ Fishes caught at different time should be kept separately.
✓ Also separate small and large fishes.
✓ Avoid soaking the fish too long in the water after death as this
easily spoils the fish.
Post-harvest Quality Changes and Storage
❑ The rate of postharvest changes in fish and shellfish depends on the
species characteristics and condition of the animals, on the stress resulting
from the fishing technique, conditions of handling on board the vessel,
bleeding and gutting, and very significantly on the efficiency of rapid
cooling of the catch
❑ If the struggling of the fish on the hook or in the net is vigorous and
strenuous and is followed by rapid killing and bleeding, the muscle reserves
of the energy-supplying compounds get exhausted and cannot be restored
❑ On the other hand, in well rested, rapidly killed fish, the flesh is rich in
these compounds
❑Commercial markets require high flesh quality of raw products, and therefore,
it is critical to control postharvest biochemical changes in fish muscle by
implementing proper handling.
❑In general, handling stress results in lower muscle creatine phosphate, ATP,
and pH; a faster onset of rigor mortis; higher plasma cortisol and muscle
lactate; and softer muscle Texture
❑This type of spoilage results in discoloration, off-flavours, and changes in the
texture of the flesh. Ultimately, the belly area will go brown and soft and may
even split (giving the condition known as “belly burn”
❑The notable changes in fish are:
➢ Autolytic or Enzymatic Changes
➢ Microbial Changes
➢ Biochemical or Chemical Changes
Enzymatic spoilage
❖ After the death, the normal circulatory system breaks down and chemical signals
leak into the muscle causing them to stiffen. This process is known as Rigor
Mortis.
❖ The blood circulation stops and the supply of oxygen is prevented. The enzymes
present in the muscle convert glycogen into lactic acid. The pH of the fish
muscle falls.
❖ After the completion of rigor mortis, muscle stiffness gradually decreases
accompanied by increase in pH, ending up in softening of muscle. This is
followed by breakdown of proteins by enzymes. This process is called as
autolysis.
Enzymatic spoilage
❖ Autolysis of protein starts immediately after rigor and creates favourable
conditions for the growth of bacteria.
❖ ATP to AMP and Hypoxanthine. Thus the estimation of Hypoxanthine content in
fish indicates the degree of freshness.
❖ Enzymatic action also causes decomposition in the fish known as belly bursting.
Autolytic changes
Enzyme(s) Substrate Changes Encountered Prevention/Inhibition

production of lactic acid, pH of tissue
fish should be allowed to pass through rigor at
drops, loss of water-holding capacity in
temperatures as close to 0°C as practically possible
Glycolytic enzymes glycogen muscle
high temperature rigor may result in
pre-rigor stress must be avoided
gaping
ATP
Autolytic enzymes, loss of fresh fish flavor, gradual
ADP same as above
involved in nucleotide production of bitterness with Hx (later
AMP rough handling or crushing accelerates breakdown
breakdown stages)
IMP
proteins, softening of tissue making processing
Cathepsins rough handling during storage and discharge
peptides difficult or impossible
Chymotrypsin, trypsin, proteins, autolysis of visceral cavity in pelagic problem increased with freezing/thawing or longterm
carboxy-peptidases peptides (belly- bursting) chill storage
myofibrillar softening, molt-induced softening in
Calpain removal of calcium thus preventing activation?
proteins crustaceans
Connective gaping" of fillets connective tissue degradation related to time and
Collagenases
tissue softening temperature of chilled storage
store fish at temperature <= -30°C
formaldehyde-induced toughening of
TMAO demethylase TMAO Physical abuse and freezing/thawing accelerate
frozen gadoid fish
formaldehyde-induced toughening
Microbial spoilage
❖ Bacteria are considered to be a primary cause of spoilage in fresh fish. Fish struggle
when caught, use up all glycogen in the cells, therefore no lactic acid forms to preserve
the fish after death. When bacteria damage fish trimethylamine is formed giving a bad
smell and contributing to the sour and putrid odors characteristic of spoiled fish.
❖ Proteins, constituting 70 - 90 % are degraded by proteolytic organisms such as
Pseudomonas, Proteus, Chromobacterium, Halobacterium, and Micrococcus , etc. The
Carbohydrates, present in small amount in the fish flesh are spoiled by carbohydrate
fermenting organisms like Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, Micrococcus , etc.
❖ Fats constituting 3 - 5 % of the flesh are digested by relatively few gram negative
bacteria.
Chemical Changes
❖The chemical action involves oxidation of fat, contained within the fatty
tissues of the fish. It is more pronounced in fat fishes (e.g. oil sardine,
mackerels, catla, trout, grass carp etc.) which as a result become
decolourised.
❖ Seafoods have a large proportion of soft, polyunsaturated fats and oils
that are highly vulnerable to attack from oxygen (oxidation). The oil starts
getting oxidized as soon as it comes in contact with the atmospheric air,
which is known as rancidity.
❖Although more commonly associated with frozen fish than fresh, some fish
may develop pronounced fishy flavors due to oxidation even when held
fresh. The problem is aggravated by exposure to light and by some metals,
such as those found in cigarette ashes and the iron present in red flesh.
Biochemical Changes
• Comparison of the chemical compounds developing in naturally spoiling fish and
sterile fish has shown that most of the volatile compounds are produced by
bacteria.
• These include trimethylamine, volatile Sulphur compounds, aldehydes, ketones,
esters, hypoxanthine as well as other low molecular weight compounds.
• The substrates for the production of volatiles are the carbohydrates (e.g., lactate
and ribose), nucleotides (e.g., inosine mono-phosphate and inosine) and other
NPN molecules. The amino-acids are particularly important substrates for
formation of sulphides and ammonia. Common biochemical changes are:
➢ Changes in carbohydrate
➢ Changes in protein
➢ Changes in Lipid
➢ Changes in collagenases
Changes in carbohydrate: Glycolisis
• The lack of oxygen after the fish die, causes metabolisms of glycogen
anaerobically resulting in lactic acid production. Accumulation of
lactic acid in the tissue leads to a reduction in the tissues pH,
suppressing the development of microorganisms. Unfortunately
glycogen content of the fish flesh is low.
Changes in carbohydrate: Glycolisis
❖Therefore the pH of the fish flesh is ultimately high. However after
death, should the pH of the fish goes down below normal pH of the
fish (6.2-6.5) then,
➢ the fish will lose water easily
➢ this leads to chalky fish
❖Glycogen content of the fish after death is affected by the condition
of the fish.
❖Fish undergo many struggle movement during capture will have less
glycogen reserve in its flesh then that of having more rest; and
glycolysis continue with an apparent increase in lactic acid formation
in the fish flesh, which means drop in pH tissue of the fish also result
in the liberation and activation of inherent acid cell proteases,
cathepsins, peptidases.
Changes in protein
i) Reduction of Trimethylamine Oxide (TMAO)
❖Trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) is found in a large number of marine fish and shellfish,
generally in large amounts in elasmosbranch fishes. Reduction of TMAO to TMA
possibly done by endogenous enzymes in fish, but mainly by the enzyme activity of
certain bacteria. Only a fraction of the total bacterial population reduces TMAO is
facultative anaerobic Achromobacter, which are capable of growth in interior or on he
surface of the fish.
❖Bacterial enzyme will activate the oxide of the TMAO rendering it succeptible to
reduction by many of dehydrogenases of the cell. This enzyme called triamine-oxidase.
This triamine (TMAO) so that the bacterial dehydrogenase can reduce it to TMA.
❖The degradation of TMAO to TMA associated with fishy odour spoilage and is part of
spoilage pattern of many fish species. When TMA reacts with fat in the muscle of the
fish, a characteristic fishy odor of low quality fish is produced. The odor will appear
when the levels of TMA is about 4-6 mgN/ 100 ml of muscle extract and it will be
definitely smell at the level l0 mgN/100 ml of the muscle extract
Changes in protein
❖TMAO degradation reactions:
AH2 + (CH3)3NO → A + (CH3)3N + H20
CH3CHOCOOH + TMAO → CH3COCOOH + TMA + H2
lactic acid pyruvic acid
CH3COCOOH + TMAO + H2O → CH3COOH + CO2 + TMA + H2O

❖In eviscerated or fillet fish which is stored at refrigerated and undergo bacterial
spoilage, TMA content will increase as the number of bacteria increase and the fillets
eventually take on trimethylamine-like odor prior to the development of ammoniacal
and putridiodors. Further they stated that Pseudomonas putrfaciens has responsible
for TMA production.
❖During iced storage of fresh fatty fish, changes in the lipid fraction is caused almost
exclusively by chemical action, e.g., oxidation, whereas bacterial attack on the lipid
fraction contributes little to the spoilage profile. During storage of lightly preserved
fish, lipid hydrolysis caused by bacteria may be part of the spoilage profile.
Changes in protein
ii) Calpains
❖A second group of intracellular proteases called "calpains" or "calcium activated
factor" (CAF) has recently been associated with fish muscle autolysis and is
found in meats, finfish and crustaceans.
❖Tenderness is probably the most important quality characteristic of red meat.
Calpains have been found primarily responsible for the post mortem autolysis of
meat through digestion of the z- line proteins of the myofibril. Although
toughness is seldom a problem with unfrozen fish muscle, softening through
autolysis is a serious problem limiting the commercial value.
❖The calpains are intra-cellular endopeptidases requiring cysteine and calcium;
µ-calpain requiring 5-50 µM Ca2+ , m-calpain requiring 150-1000 µM Ca2+ . Most
calpains are active at physiological pH, making it reasonable to suspect their
importance in fish-softening during chilled storage.
Changes in protein
ii) Calpains
❖Studies have shown that in crustacean muscle, calpains are associated with
molt induced textural changes to the muscle and carry out non-specific
generalized digestion of the myofibrillar proteins.
❖In contrast, fish calpains digest myosin (specifically the myosin heavy chain)
to form an initial fragment with approximate molecular weight of 150 000
Da. Calpain has been identified in several fish species including carp, tilapia
and shrimp, as well as tuna, croaker, red seabream and trout to name a few,
❖Little work has to date demonstrated a "cause and effect" relationship
between calpain activity and instrumental measurements of texture.
Post-harvest Quality Changes and Storage Changes in
Lipid
❖The two distinct reactions in fish lipids of importance for quality deterioration
are:
➢ oxidation
➢ hydrolysis
❖They result in production of a range of substances among which some have
unpleasant (rancid) taste and smell. Some may also contribute to texture changes
by binding covalently to fish muscle proteins. The various reactions are
either non-enzymatic or catalyzed by microbial enzymes or
by intracellular or digestive enzymes from the fish themselves. The relative
significance of these reactions, therefore, mainly depends on fish species and
storage temperature.
❖Fatty fish are, of course, particularly susceptible to lipid degradation which can
create severe quality problems even on storage at subzero temperatures.
Changes in Lipid
i) Oxidation
❖The large amount of polyunsaturated fatty acid moieties found in fish lipids
makes them highly susceptible to oxidation by an autocatalytic mechanism. The
process is initiated as described below by abstraction of a hydrogen atom from
the central carbon of the pentadiene structure found in most fatty acid acyl
chains containing more than one double bond:
-CH = CH-CH2-CH = CH- -CH = CH-CH-CH = CH- + H ·
❖Contrary to the native molecule, the lipid radical (L) reacts very quickly with
atmospheric oxygen making a peroxy-radical (LOO) which again may abstract a
hydrogen from another acyl chain resulting in a lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH) and a
new radical L. This propagation continues until one of the radicals is removed by
reaction with another radical or with an antioxidant (AH) whose resulting radical
(A) is much less reactive. The hydroperoxides produced in relatively large
amounts during propagation are tasteless, and it is therefore perhaps not
surprising that the widely used "peroxide value" usually correlates rather poorly
to sensorial properties.
Changes in Lipid
❖Autoxidation of polyunsaturated lipid
❖The hydroperoxides are readily broken down, catalyzed by heavy metal

ions, to secondary autoxidation products of shorter carbon chain-length.
These secondary products - mostly aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, small
carboxylic acids and alkanes - give rise to a very broad odour spectrum and
in some cases to a yellowish discoloration. Several of the aldehydes can be
determined as "thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances.
Changes in Lipid
ii) Hydrolysis
❖During storage, a considerable amount of free fatty acids (FFA) appears. The
phenomenon is more profound in ungutted than in gutted fish probably because
of the involvement of digestive enzymes. Triglyceride in the depot fat is cleaved b
triglyceride lipase originating from the digestive tract or excreted by certain
microorganisms. Cellular lipases may also play a minor role.
The development of free fatty acids in herring stored at different temperatures

Changes in Lipid
Hydrolysis
❖In lean fish, for example Atlantic cod, production of free fatty acids also
occurs, even at low temperatures.
❖The enzymes responsible are believed to be cellular phospholipases - in
particular phospholipase A2 (PL2) - although a correlation between activity
of these enzymes and the rate of appearance of FFA has as yet not been
firmly established.
❖The fatty acids bound to phospholipids at glycerol-carbon atom 2 are
largely of the polyunsaturated type, and hydrolysis therefore often leads to
increased oxidation as well.
❖Furthermore, the fatty acids themselves may cause a "soapy" off-flavour.
Fish quality and Spoilage
➢ In general, spoilage patterns are similar for freshwater and saltwater fish.
Bacterial composition may be somewhat different during certain stages
of decomposition but proteolytic (protein-consuming) microorganisms
lend familiar putrifactive flavors and odors to both groups.
➢ Despite similarities, freshwater products, on average, maintain quality
longer than do their marine counterparts. This fact is generally attributed
to the presence of light weight compounds known as osmoregulators in
saltwater fish. Although important for balancing flesh "salt" content with
the marine environment, bacteria readily break down these compounds
as a food source.
➢ Deterioration of osmoregulators is associated with ammoniacal odors
and with undesirable texture changes during frozen storage of
susceptible seafoods.
Factors for Causes of Fish Spoilage
Fish contain very low glucose, which make them to have high ultimate pH
(6.2-6.5). These condition caused the fish susceptible to microbial spoilage
easily. Microbial spoilage of fish is affected by some factors such 2 initial
microflora, handling, processing and environment such as temperature,
season, handling such as gutting; processing such as chilling, drying and
smoking.
Fatty fish spoil faster than bony fish
Small fish decay faster that large fish
Cold water fish spoil faster than warm water fish
Bacteria are also present in the external slime, on gills, and in the interiors
of fish.
The most common chemical action that causes spoilage is when oxygen in
the air attack unsaturated oils in fish causing rancidity.
Factors for Causes of Fish Spoilage
Larger fish spoil more slowly than the small ones, bony fish species keep longer than
the cartilaginous and lean fish species better than fatty ones under aerobic storage.
The faster spoilage rate of fatty small pelagic fish can also be due to their very thin
skin, more susceptible to easier physical injuries and quick bacteria penetration.
Seafood is much more perishable and has a much shorter
refrigerator life than red meats. Why?
1. All fish struggle when caught, using up their glycogen

supply and having a higher pH because of a shortage of
lactic acid production. Most microbes that cause
problems on seafood grow better at higher pH’s.
2. A high proportion of seafood is taken from contaminated
waters; they have a high count of microbes present on
them and in their gut. When they die, the gut barrier
breaks down and microbes rapidly attack the tissues.
3. Many of the species of microbes on the seafood thrive at
refrigerator temperatures because the fish were taken
from cold waters to which the microbes are accustomed.
Seafood is much more perishable and has a much shorter
refrigerator life than red meats. Why?
4. Fish fats are more unsaturated than the fats of either red or
fowl meats contributing to be highly prone to post-mortem
deterioration due to autolithic (A), microbiological (M) and
chemical (Q) phenomena.
Therefore, fish fats oxidize more readily, causing rancid odors
and flavors.
Fish and shellfish have a shorter refrigerator and freezer life
because of this increased fat oxidation. The greatest problem
during freezer storage usually is the development of fat
rancidity.
Questions?
50
Technology
Fish Technology 3: Handling and Preservation

Handling of Fish
➢ Fish begin losing quality the moment they leave the water
➢Fish have a soft muscle structure that is easily damaged.
➢Any sort of poor or rough handling, warm temperature, or
slow delivery (off-loading) decreases the value of the
seafood by diminishing its appearance, taste, odor, texture,
and shelf life
➢ Common mistakes include lifting or pulling the fish by the tail, and
dropping or squeezing the fish, which result in the formation of
bruises and blood spots in the meat.
Handling of Fish
➢ Primary cause of quality loss is physical damage.
➢ Quality defects are not apparent to the fishermen but when the
fish are split, filleted, or steaked
➢ Quality defects:
✓ Gaping
Bruising Physical defects
Mushy (soft) flesh
✓ Enzymatic breakdown of protein
✓ Bacterial breakdown of protein (spoilage)
✓ Dirt
✓ Rancidity (oxidation of lipids)
✓ Sunburn
Handling of Fish
✓ Gaping:
❑ The separation of myomeres (muscle layers) caused by weakening of the connective
tissue between those layers. This causes slits or holes to appear in the meat, which
detracts from the appearance of the product.
❑ There are four causes of gaping:
➢ Allowing the fish to undergo rigor at high temperature. At high temperature, the
muscles constrict so violently that they separate from the connective tissue.
➢ Physically bending the fish while it is in rigor. This tears the connective tissue away
from the muscle tissue.
➢ Lifting or pulling the fish by the tail. This form of gaping is more prevalent in larger fish,
and is generally more apparent in the tail section.
➢ The nutritional content of the fish. A well-fed fish has greater stores of glycogen, which
(upon death) produces more lactic acid and stronger muscle contractions.
Handling of Fish
Bruising:
✓ Bruising: can occur when the fish is alive, after death, and even after thawing.
✓ damage by the fishing gear (e.g., gillnet); dropping, throwing, striking, or stepping on the
fish; and rough treatment during landing the fish on board the boat, or off-loading fish to
a tender vessel or at the dock
Mushy (soft) flesh:
✓ A common problem caused by poor handling and/or high temperature.
✓ This includes long delivery or pre-process holding times.
Enzymatic breakdown of protein:
✓ caused or accelerated by warm temperature, long pre-process holding times, and
crushing by large loads of fish
Bacterial breakdown of protein (spoilage):
✓ caused or accelerated by warm temperature, long pre-process holding times, and
contamination from fish contact surfaces or by scraping or punctures
Handling of Fish
Dirt:
➢ Physical inclusion of particulate matter (in addition to bacterial
contamination); caused by contact with mud or sand, fouled fishing gear, or
dirty onboard fish contact surfaces (e.g., fish holds)
Rancidity (oxidation of lipids):
➢ caused or accelerated by warm temperature, long pre-process holding times,
and exposure to ultraviolet light (as in sunlight)
Sunburn:
➢ physical degradation of the skin and underlying tissues (in addition to
rancidity); caused by exposure to sunlight (even on a cloudy day)
Fish Preservation
Fish Preservation
❖Some of the important reasons for preserving foods are:
➢ Retard or reduce the growth of undesirable microorganisms, mold
and bacteria.
➢ Extend shelf-life of food. Shelf-life – length time before a food
product begins to spoil.
➢ Safe for human consumption.
➢ Reaches areas where the food item is not available
➢ Makes transportation and storage of foods easier
➢ Avoids waste.
➢ Food available out of season.
➢ Variety in the diet.
➢ To improve palatability of the food-creates new flavours
Control Principles of Fish Preservation
Temperature control
Principle - Decrease the fish temperature to levels where metabolic
activities are reduced or completely stopped (0 C or < - 18 °C) . The design
(size, insulation, palletisation) and management of cold stores are key for
fish quality and energy saving.
Temperature control
Control of water activity
Water activity (aw) is a parameter that measures the availability of water in
fish flesh. Water is necessary for microbial and enzymatic reactions and
several preservation techniques have been developed to tie up this water
(or remove it) and thus reduce the aw. 1. Drying 2. Salting 3. Smoking
4.Freeze-drying
Physical control
Use of heat (cooking, blanching, pasteurizing, sterilizing), ionizing

irradiation (for pasteurization or sterilization) or microwave
heating. Refrigeration is required to preserve fish products and
increase their shelf life.
Sterilised products and which are stable at ambient temperatures
(<40 0C). These require packaging in metal cans or retortable
pouches before the heat treatment, thus the term "canning".
Chemical control
Principle: These techniques are designed to add anti-microbial agents or
decrease the fish muscle pH.
•Most bacteria stop multiplying at pH < 4.5.
•The decrease of pH is obtained by fermentation, marinades or by adding
acids (acetic, citric, lactic, etc.) to fish products. This technique is often
referred to as bio-preservation.
•Preservatives include nitrites, sulphites, sorbates, benzoates or natural
ones such as essential oils.
Methods of Preservation of Fish Products
➢ Chilling and Freezing
➢ Smoking
➢ Drying or dehydration
➢ Salting
➢ Fish curing
➢ Canning
Preservation can be done, both for short and long duration
Chilled storage
❖ This is obtained by covering the fish with layers of ice. However, ice
alone is not effective for long preservation, because melting water
brings about a sort of leaching of valuable flesh contents which are
responsible for the flavour.
❖ Chilling is an effective way of reducing spoilage in fish if it is done
quickly and if the fish are kept chilled and handled carefully and
hygienically.
❖ The objective of chilling is to cool the fish as quickly as possible to as
low a temperature as possible without freezing. Chilling cannot
prevent the spoilage together but in general, the colder the fish, the
greater the reduction in bacterial and enzyme activity.
Block Ice Types of Ice
❖ Ice is conventionally manufactured in the block form, which is crushed to
smaller pieces for icing. Crushed ice has a large surface area, which will
ensure rapid cooling than the large blocks. Ice blocks are formed within 12
- 24 hours.
Flake Ice
❖ Ice with smooth contours and in the shape of very thin flakes is called flake
ice. It has an area of 100 - 1000 mm2 and a thickness of 2 - 3 mm.
Plate Ice
❖ Plate ice is made by spraying water on to the surface of vertical hollow
plates through which a refrigerant passes. A flat sheet of ice will be formed
on the surface of the plate and when it attains the desired thickness it is
separated by pumping hot gas through the plates In some cases a water
spray . Plate ice has the advantages of flake ice, the process is quick and
the thickness of ice can be varied as per requirement.
Types of Ice
Tube Ice
Ice is made as hollow cylinder of about 50 ´ 50 mm with a wall thickness of 10
to 12 mm. Tube ice will have to be crushed to the required size before icing
and has all the advantages of the flake ice.
Liquid ice or Flow ice
Liquid ice or flow ice looks like jelly. It actually consists of amorphous ice micro
particles suspended in a non-corrosive, non-toxic solution. Because of its fluid
properties, it buries the fish, making close contact with the entire surface.
Soft Ice
Soft ice is made by freezing a weak brine or seawater in a drum provided with
refrigerated walls. Ice crystals are skimmed off from the tank to be used as
soft ice slurry. It has the advantage of making perfect contact with the
material. Besides it does not cake, or forms air pockets as it can happen with
other forms of ice.
Preservation for long time
When the preservation is required for a long period of time, the
fishes are passed through the cleaning, gutting and conservation and
storage.
Cleaning:
During cleaning, the caught first are fish washed thoroughly in cold,
clean water to remove bacteria, slime, blood, faeces, and mud, etc.
from the body surface of the fish. It is being done under proper
sanitary conditions.
Preservation for long time
Gutting:
After cleaning, the fishes are cut along their mid ventral side, and
their visceral organs are removed. By removing viscera, the
bacteria in the gastro intestinal tract and enzymes of visceral
organs are removed along with it to prevent bacterial
decomposition and enzymic autolysis respectively.
Conservation and storage:

Conservation is necessary to keep the dead fish in fresh condition
for quite a long time. This is achieved by employing any one of
the methods like freezing, drying, salting, smoking and canning.
Freezing
❖ This is more effective than chilling.
❖ Freezing is achieved either by using a mixture of ice and salt or refrigeration.
❖ Freezing of fish causes death of bacteria to the extent of 60 to 90%
depending on the initial native flora of fish.
❖ The survivors are mainly gram positive bacteria and they cannot grow and
cause spoilage of frozen fish.
❖ However, during the thawing of the frozen fish, these surviving bacteria
cause spoilage of the thawed fish.
❖ The rate of spoilage during thawing is greater when thawing is done at room
temperature compared to thawing at 10ºC or cold temperatures.
Freezing
❖ Freezing is achieved either by using a mixture of ice and salt or refrigeration.
❖ Freezing begins in the fish usually at a temperature of -1 to -2 °C.
❖ The formation of ice to some extent causes damage to the biological
material, like growth of crystals of ice ruptures the structural components,
releasing the enzymes and precipitation of liquid water and thereby causing
precipitation of proteins effecting the change of pH making it more or less
dry.
❖ The ice formation is initiated when the temperature of fish is lowered to
about 1 °C with a change in the concentration of inorganic and organic
compounds.
❖ Freezing continues to fall with the lowering of temperature. At - 50 to -60 °C
the entire water in the fish is frozen.
Freezing
❖ To prevent rancidity, the frozen fish is subject to glazing with water or it
is wrapped in a cover of moisture proof wax paper.
❖ Glazing is dipping the frozen fish in water so that finally a layer of hard
ice surrounds the fish.
❖ This layer affords protection against exposure of fish fat to atmospheric
oxygen, thus preventing rancidity.
❖ If protein food is not wrapped properly the cold air will cause
the food to toughen, discolour and dry out. This is called
freezer burn.
Freezing
Freezer burn
❖ Freezer burn is a condition that occurs
when frozen food has been damaged
by dehydration and oxidation, due to
air reaching the food. It is generally
induced by non-airtight packaging
❖ characterized by: lighter colour
(microscopic cavity previously occupied
by ice can change the wavelength of
reflected light)
❖ minimized by packaging
Quick freezing and slow freezing
❖ The freezing process in which the fish passes through the zone of
maximum crystallization in 30 minutes or less is arbitrarily referred to as
quick freezing. Quick freezing is the process employed in commercial
freezing of fish. When fish is intended to be stored for a long period, quick
freezing is preferred which inhibits bacterial action.
❖ During quick freezing every part of the product comes within the range of
0 to -5 oC. Properly frozen fish at -20oC retains its physical properties and
nutritive values for a year or more and is almost as good as fresh fish.
❖ Smaller sized crystals, shorter time taken for freezing less time allowed for
diffusion of salts and evaporation of water and prevention of
decomposition are some of the advantages in quick freezing.
Quick freezing and slow freezing
❖ Slow freezing has the following disadvantages over quick freezing :
➢ Large ice crystals are formed during slow freezing which can damage
the cell walls. This may cause textural changes and increased thaw
drip. Drip is the flow of tissue fluids from the frozen fish or muscle
during freezing of the fish or muscle. The formation of drip affects the
appearance of the product and results in the loss of weight. Hence, drip
is considered as one of the criteria for judging the quality of the frozen
products.
➢ Water tends to freeze out as pure water leading to a higher
concentration of salts and enzymes in the unfrozen water. This can
accelerate autolysis.
➢ Some bacteria may remain alive at 0 oC causing spoilage to continue in
fish.
Changes in food during frozen storage
❖ Recrystallization
❖ Freezer burn (dehydration)
❖ Residual chemical (lipid oxidation) and enzymatic reaction (plant
origin polyphenoloxidase, lipoxygenase; animal origin- proteolytic and
lipolytic enzymes
❖ Colloidal substance/physical change (starch syneresis; emulsion
breakdown)
Changes in food during frozen storage
❖ Mechanisms of migratory recrystallisation in foods during frozen storage:
➢ Caused by fluctuation of storage temp.
➢ Heat entering a freezer => melting of ice crystal on food surface nearest to
heat source => ice crystal reduces in size => vapour pressure increases Vs
inside of freezer => migration => dehydration near the region of the heat
source => when temp falls => no recrystallisation of water vapor, but
migrated and joined with other ice crystals => bigger size=> quality loss as
in slow freezing
Fish curing
❖Curing is a process by which the fish is preserved by sun drying, salting,
pickling, smoking, artificial drying etc. This is the cheapest method of
preservation also, since no expensive method or technology is used. This
can be done either by any single method or a combination of these
methods.
❖Traditionally, simple sun drying was practiced widely. Here preservation

was achieved by removing the water in the fish, thereby retarding the
activity of bacteria and fungi. The heat was able to destroy the bacteria to
a certain extent. Later on it was a combination of both salting and then
drying or salting, smoking and drying. In the current market situation both
wet and dry cured fishery products have commercial importance.
Smoking
❖ Smoking is another traditional method of `preservation of fish. Smoking
is generally a combination of salting, and drying. Smoking is usually done
in a kiln or a room, which is specially prepared for it. The source of smoke
is wood or sawdust or coconut husk, depending on the particular flavor
required. The fish that is salted and partially dried is used for smoking.
❖ Smoking can be cold, hot or liquid. If the temperature is below 35 °C, it is
cold and which is 70 to 80°C it is hot.
➢ Smoked fish may be kept for many months in freezer but in refrigerator, cold smoked
fish may be preserved for several months but hot smoked may be kept only for a
week.
❖ Hot smoked products are partially cooked due to the heat of smoke.
❖ The preserving effect of smoking on fishery products is attributed to a
combination of surface drying, salting and deposition of phenolic and
other antimicrobial constituents of smoke on the fish.
Smoking
❖Good controls are necessary over density,
temperature, humidity, speed of circulation,
pattern of circulation and time of contact
with fish of the smoke.
❖The phenol content of the smoke acts as an
bactericidal and bacteriostatic effect and it
also imparts a characteristic colour and
flavour. Some condensation of tars and
resins also adds to the taste.
❖Smoked fish have the potential danger of
containing certain carcinogenic compounds
of smoke such as 3-4, bensopyrine harmful
due to the presence of carcinogenic
compounds.
Drying or dehydration
❖This is the simplest method of drying fish .
❖Drying is the process in which moisture is removed by exposure
to natural air current as humidity is regulated by climatic
condition.
❖Dehydration is the process of removing moisture with the use of
mechanical device that provides artificial heat for drying.
❖Drying involves dehydration i.e. the removal of moisture
contents of fish, so that the bacterial decomposition or enzymic
autolysis does not occur. When moisture contents reduce up to
10%, the fishes are not spoiled provided they are stored in dry
conditions.
❖Fish drying is achieved either naturally or by artificial means.
❖The fishes dried in this way are small, lean ones, which are
available in plenty during the glut season.
❖They are usually spread out on the seashore as whole with little
preprocessing.
❖Sometimes they are given a washing in the seawater.
❖Drying takes place usually by the removal of moisture from the
surface and later from the interior of the fish.
❖Depending on the relative humidity, temperature, air velocity,
the removal moisture takes place continuously.
❖Factors, which affect the rate of drying, are:
✓ Size of the material, larger fish takes a longer time to dry where as
smaller ones lesser
✓ Surface area, large surface area will increase the rate of drying.
✓ Temperature, the higher the temperature the faster will be the rate of
drying
✓ Relative humidity, the lower the RH the faster will be the drying
✓ Air velocity, the greater the speed of the air, the faster the drying
✓ Fat Content, fatty fishes will take a longer time to dry than lean fishes
✓ Water content, the higher the water content the faster is the drying
Salting
❖Salting is a process where the common salt, sodium chloride, is used as a
preservative which penetrates the tissues, thus checks the bacterial
growth and inactivates the enzymes.
❖Salting commences as soon as the fish surface of the fish comes in contact
with common salt and the end product shall have the required salinity with
taste and odour.
❖Some of the factors involved in salting of fish which play an important role
are purity of salt, quantify of salt used, method of salting and weather
conditions like temperature, etc.
❖During the process the small fishes are directly salted without being
cleaned. In the medium and large sized fish the head and viscera are
removed and longitudinal cuts are made with the help of knives in the
fleshy area of the body.
❖Then the fish is washed and filled with salt for uniform penetration
through flesh.
Industrial Fish Processing
Process overview
❖White fish species have a low oil content and, unlike their oily fish
counterparts, are generally gutted, cleaned and sometimes de-headed on
board the fishing vessel. The fish are kept on ice in boxes before being
delivered to the fish processing plant. On arrival at the plant, fish may be re-
iced and placed in chilled storage until required for further processing.
❖Oily fish species are characterised as those having oils distributed
throughout the fillet and in the belly cavity around the gut. Fillets from
these species may contain up to 30% oil. Oil content varies not only
between species but also within species.
❖Oily fish species are very rarely gutted or cleaned on board the fishing
vessels, due to the high oil content and the consequent risks associated
with oily surfaces. Keeping the skin of the fish intact also reduces oxidation
of the oil and thus maintains flesh quality. Oily species can be filleted like
white fish species, but they are also used for canning.
Industrial Fish Processing
Packaging
Primary processing
Gutting & deheading
Primary processing
Gutting & deheading
The gutting of fish can bring about the

following advantages:
➢ Make subsequent chilling more effective

➢ Remove undesirable digestive enzymes
➢ Prevent undesirable bacteria in the fish
intestine from spreading
➢ Avoid the penetration of parasites such as
nematodes from the gut into the flesh
Primary processing
Grading - whole fish
The comprehensive system consists of two
distinct processing areas: a gutting area, and
a packing and distribution area.
Desliming
To ensure a high level of hygiene, slime
should be removed, blood, and bacteria
from the fish. Using high water pressure, the
units thoroughly rinse the product and
thereby reduce the bacteria count
signifcantly. The deslimer unit can be used
before gutting, or before or after the
deheading process. Water consumption is
kept to a minimum by recirculating the water
through a flter in the deslimer rinsing
system.
Primary processing
Weighing
Bench, ﬂoor, and hopper

scales can be combined
with the comprehensive
range of weighing
indicators, computers,
printers, labelers, software,
and accessories to suit
individual processing needs.
Secondary processing
Filleting
❖ Filleting is one of the secondary processes
where there is great potential to increase
yield. Filleting is generally done by
mechanical filleting machines. The
filleting department is generally
separated from the pretreatment area by
a wall, to prevent workers and goods
passing from the non-sterile retreatment
area to the sterile filleting area.
❖ The filleting machines comprise pairs of
mechanically operated knives which cut
the fillets from the backbone and remove
the collarbone. Some fish fillets may also
be skinned at this stage.
❖ Trimming
In the trimming department, pin
bones are removed and operators
inspect the fillets, removing
defects and any parts that are of
inferior quality. Offcuts are
collected and minced.
❖ Depending on the final product,
the fillets may be cut into portions
according to weight or divided into
parts such as loin, tail and belly
flap.
❖ As a final step before packaging,
the fillets are inspected to ensure
they meet product standard.
Packaging
❑ Fresh products are packaged in boxes
with ice, the ice being separated from
the products by a layer of plastic.
❑ Frozen products can be packed in a
number of ways.
❑ Fillets or pieces can be individually
frozen and wrapped in plastic, but the
most common method is for them to
be packed as 6–11 kg blocks in waxed
cartons.
❑ The blocks are typically frozen and
then kept in cold storage.
Processing Plant Design & Operations
➢ There are many factors you need to take into account as you design the building
or buildings for your processing plant.
❖ First, make sure that the building complies with regulations for the construction
of fish plants.
❖ Second, plan your building to include all the spaces you will need. These may
include spaces for:
✓ Storing packaging and supplies
✓ Offloading and storing unprocessed fish
✓ Quality testing
✓ Processing
✓ Lavatory, laundry, and eating
✓ Blast freezing or chilling room facilities
✓ Packaging ✓ Utility equipment (heat, hot
✓ Cold storage water, well water, electric)
✓ Storing other products not kept in cold storage ✓ Office
Processing Plant Design & Operations
Canning
➢ High heat treatment is given to destroy the present bacteria and the product is
packaged in hermetically sealed containers to protect against recontamination.
➢ The canning process involves pre-treatment of fish, preparation of can, filling and
closure of the can, technique of heating the filled cans to kill micro organisms without
damage to fish, finally cooling, cleaning and storage of the product.
➢ Canning provides shelf stable fish and so freezing space is not required. Canning may
keep the fish fresh for even years.
➢ Salient features of canning:
✓ Consumer safety
✓ Ready to consume products
✓ Concentrated product as only edible part is packed.
✓ No special storage facility needed.
✓ Very long shelf life
✓ Processing methods simple.
Demerits of fish preservation
Although the preservation and processing constitute a very important
aspect of the fish industry, it has certain drawbacks particularly with
respect to retaining quality of fish flesh these are discussed briefly:
➢ Chilling brings about denaturation of flesh. This is because of ice
crystals formed during chilling and causing mechanical damage to the
muscles. Cell walls burst, structure gets deformed and the flesh loses
much of flavour and taste. The flesh also becomes dehydrated and
losses texture.
➢ If proper hygienic measures are not taken during the processes like
washing, guttation and evisceration, etc. more harm would be done to
the preserved material, owing to increase in the bacteria population
➢ Incomplete or poor preservation leads to decarboxylation of histidine
of fish flesh into histamine. The latter some other related substances,
collectively called saurine, are common causes of food poisoning.
Demerits of fish preservation
➢ Drying reduces weight, nutritive value and the digestibility
of the flesh.
➢ Excess salting allows growth of salt tolerant bacteria,
causing pink eye spoilage of fish flesh.
➢ Salting combined with smoking results in loss of protein,
about 1 to 5 % due to salting and 8 to 30 % due to
smoking.
➢ Smoking also accelerates rancidity of fat and so reduces
digestibility of fat products.
➢ Canning leads to much loss of vitamin B1, panthotenic acid,
vitamin-C and pteroxylglutamic acid.
Waste Treatment and Utilization
➢ Most seafood processing requires a volume of clean water for preparation and
preservation of final products. Clean water is used to wash, thaw, transport,
cook, formulate, and/or package seafood products. The usual consequence of
this water use is the addition of some foreign matter or waste materials which
pollute the original water supply. The type and amount of pollutants entering the
water will depend on the product forms, processing methods, and amount of
product and volume of water used.
➢ Most seafood processing requires a volume of clean water for preparation and
preservation of final products. Clean water is used to wash, thaw, transport,
cook, formulate, and/or package seafood products. The usual consequence of
this water use is the addition of some foreign matter or waste materials which
pollute the original water supply. The type and amount of pollutants entering the
water will depend on the product forms, processing methods, and amount of
product and volume of water used.
Waste Treatment and Utilization
➢ Materials which can cause water pollution during seafood processing include
viscera, offal products, skin, scales, shell, and body parts. Most of these materials
are large, visible with the naked eye, and can be removed with simple cleanup
procedures, filtering, screens, and settling basins.
➢ Various analytical methods have been developed to characterize and predict the
consequences of wastewaters. These characteristics are commonly called
pollutant parameters. The parameters of major significance to seafood
processing wastewater are biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended
solids (TSS), and oil and grease (O&G). To establish certain guidelines, pH is
included as a parameter that must fall within a specified range. Of occasional
importance are temperature, phosphorus, coliform bacteria, chloride, chemical
oxygen demand (COD), settleable solids, and nitrogen. All these parameters are
considered conventional pollutants.
➢
----Utilization
➢ Before initiating a seafood waste utilization option the seafood processor should
consider the following questions:
➢ Is there an identifiable user group for the product?
➢ Would distance to and separation of the users cause transportation problems
and prohibitive cost? For example, minimum distance to a user group is
necessary to consider production of fish silage (high moisture content
fermentation or heavy feed).
➢ What is the anticipated volume and schedule (monthly, seasonal) production
and does this suit demand?
➢ Could a more continuous production be established through cooperation with
similar and not-too-distant seafood firms?
➢ Do similar, cost competitive products exist?
➢ What waste and regulatory problems would the seafood waste utilization
process cause?
➢ If the product is not profitable, is it a least-cost treatment option?
Human Consumption
----Utilization
Edible products for human consumption have received considerable attention with
applications for waste protein recovery by screening, filters, concentration, and
deboning, and subsequent product fabrication by pressing, extruding, texturizing,
pressure heating, and breading. Likewise, recovery of soluble proteins and various
body parts has been incorporated in chowders, paste, and various other edible
products. Current market evaluations indicate this demand trend should continue, but
domestic production of many traditional types of seafood is approaching maximum annual
sustainable yields. Proper market introduction and quality will be the keys for successful
introduction of new by-products.
Feeds
Edible products for feeds can also be recovered for animal consumption. The most
popular seafood by-product for feed is meal or dehydrated protein, for example,
poultry ration supplement. The production of meal from fish or shellfish scraps
has, at times, become a less favored option due to the costs for heating fuels and
cost competition from other vegetable protein meals.
➢ Industrial Products
----Utilization
➢ Industrial products from seafood waste tend to be less profitable than edible products but can
represent alternatives available to specific fisheries. For example, production of chitin/chitosan
from crustacean shells has received considerable development work. Studies have shown chitin and
its derivative chitosan could be used as coagulants, as emulsifying and thickening agents, and for
medical purposes. Attempts to initiate production of chitin/chitosan have failed due to unique
handling requirements, expensive capital equipment, and limited demand versus less expensive,
competitive products with similar functionality.
➢ Other Uses
➢ Seafood waste as a fertilizer, raw, wet, or dried, could be utilized if directed to specialized markets,
such as for houseplants, or for commercial greenhouses. Developing this market would depend on
competitive cost and any unique features in seafood fertilizers. Enhanced growth rates and indirect
control of soil nematodes have been noted for certain dried seafood waste, for example, shellfish
shell. Production of crops and grasses has been demonstrated for certain wet, raw seafood wastes.
Shells from clams and scallops have always been useful for road and landfill construction. Certain
mollusk shells can be cleaned and sanitized and then used as attractive containers for dips or
deviled items. Likewise, shells from crabs can make attractive containers.
➢ Other Uses ----Utilization
Seafood waste as a fertilizer, raw, wet, or dried, could
be utilized if directed to specialized markets, such as for
houseplants, or for commercial greenhouses.
Developing this market would depend on competitive
cost and any unique features in seafood fertilizers.
Enhanced growth rates and indirect control of soil
nematodes have been noted for certain dried seafood
waste, for example, shellfish shell. Production of crops
and grasses has been demonstrated for certain wet,
raw seafood wastes. Shells from clams and scallops
have always been useful for road and landfill
construction.
Certain mollusk shells can be cleaned and sanitized and
then used as attractive containers for dips or devilled
items. Likewise, shells from crabs can make attractive
containers.
Questions?
56
Technology
Seafood Safety and Quality Evaluations

Quality Concepts
❑ Seafood must meet several basic customer and consumer expectations,
including (but not limited to):
❑ Purity—Consumers prefer seafood from pristine natural environments,
free of pollutants.
❑ Safety—Consumers must be protected from harmful foods, especially
contamination by physical, chemical, or biological hazards. The safety of
seafood is ensured by adherence to the HACCP and good sanitation
practices. Note that “safety” is quite different from “quality.”
❑ • Quality—There are two ways to think about seafood quality. One
concerns the positive intrinsic characteristics of the seafood: taste, texture,
color, and appearance. These attributes are determined by the natural
biology of the species.
Quality Concepts
◼ The quality assessment of fish and other seafood is hampered by the
immense variation between species and by the considerable variability
between specimens of each species
◼ Weight and length vary with
Food Involved
age and parallel with other factors such as
Common Symptoms
proximate composition, which is subject to change based on the state of
maturity, fishing area, season and nutritional status.
◼ This implies that each fish specimen is unique and therefore before
analyzing fish a careful consideration has to be made if this variation is
essential for the results and the conclusions drawn from them or if a
more general statement is sufficient (pooled samples)
3-11
FOOD SAFETY HAZARDS
❑ Seafood is rich in terms of nutritional composition, making seafood a
preferable when trying to maintain a healthy life.
❑ The suitability of a food for human consumption can be judged based on the
occurrence of food safety hazards and quality problems.
❑ For a food to be safe and acceptable, it should be free from hazards and
quality defects.
❑ The standards stipulate tolerance limits for each hazard and tolerance limits
for quality defects.
❑ Periodic evaluation of food samples at critical stages of production to meet
the requirements of such standards will be effective in controlling food borne
diseases and public health problems.
3-3
FOOD SAFETY HAZARDS
❑ The vast majority of food poisoning cases associated with seafood ingestion are
caused by postharvest contamination with infectious organisms (e.g.) or with
toxins of bacterial origin (e.g.,.), or are the result of allergies to shellfish
➢Biological/ Microbiological hazards: Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp.,

Clostridium botulinum, Shigella spp., or Listeria spp
➢Physical
o Metal shavings from cans, staples
o Fingernails, hair, bandages
➢Chemical-
o Anthropogenic toxins-Toxic metals and pesticides
o Fish toxins :
o Shellfish toxins
➢ Fish Allergens 3-3
Chemical hazards
❑ Chemical hazards are toxic chemical compounds that appear in food
either as a contaminant or a food additive or as a genetic constituent.
❑ Most of the chemical hazards are either immediate toxins or cumulative
toxins, which are non-biodegradable.
❑ They are not destroyed by cooking or by food preservation (e.g., freezing,
drying, or salting).
❑ In addition, these toxins are refractory to the action of human digestive
enzymes, and there are no antidotes against their biological activity
❑ Bio-accumulative toxins, the bodies of the consumers lack the
mechanism to detoxify or excrete the daily doses of small quantities of
these toxic substances.
❑ Consequently, with periodic consumption, the level of these toxic
chemical residues accumulates in body to toxic concentrations.
❑ These compounds can be noxious or lethal to humans 3-3
Chemical hazards
❑ Common known chemical hazards in food industry include:
a) Bio-toxins
b) Heavy metals
c) Pesticide Residues
d) Antibiotic residues
e) Hormone residues
f) Aflatoxins
g) Fish Allergens
Biotoxins
❑ Algae and microalgae are found in the marine environment throughout the
world.
❑ Many types of microalgae, such as dinoflagellates and diatoms, produce some
of the most powerful known natural toxins or Biotoxins or phycotoxins.
❑ Bio-toxins are naturally occurring toxins synthesized by certain living
organisms.
❑ Under certain environmental conditions, algae rapidly multiply to produce
blooms.
❑ When algal blooms pose environmental or health hazards, they are termed
harmful algal blooms (HABs)
❑ The majority of the known seafood toxin syndromes are associated with filter
feeding shellfish, namely mussels, oysters, scallops and clams.
❑ Smaller doses of these toxins will be detoxified by body.
Chemical hazards
❑ Shellfish accumulate microalgal biotoxins generally in the digestive gland
(hepatopancreas), but also in other tissues.
❑ Toxin retention time varies according to the group of toxins, the tissues in
which the toxins are located, and also the shellfish species
❑ Phycotoxins accumulated in seafood can cause a number of human diseases
upon ingestion of the contaminated seafood:
a) Diarrhoeic shellfish poisoning (DSP),
b) Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP),
c) Neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP),
d) Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP)
e) Ciguatera poisoning.
Diarrhoeic shellfish poisoning (DSP)
❑ The primary symptom of the syndrome is acute diarrhea
❑ The significant DSP toxins are okadaic acid and its derivatives.
❑ Okadaic acid itself was previously isolated from a marine sponge
❑ The DSP toxins are apparently accumulated by shellfish from dinoflagellates
❑ Its acute effects appear to be due to inhibition of protein phosphorylation.
❑ In addition to its acute effect on the gastrointestinal tract, okadaic acid has
been shown to be a potent tumor promoter
3-9
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP)
Illness: Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)
Toxin: Saxitoxin
◼ Potentially lethaI syndrome resulting from the consumption of Clams, Mussels,

Oysters, Scallops, or other animals that are contaminated with the saxitoxins
◼ Compounds in the saxitoxin (STX) family (20 different toxins, including STX,
neosaxitoxins (neoSTX), gonyautoxins (GTX)) responsible for PSPs.
◼ The signs and symptoms of PSP generally develop rapidly, within 0.5 to 2 hours
of a meal depending on the dose, and in severe cases may progress to death
due to respiratory paralysis within a few hours .
◼ Victims who survive more than 12 hours generally recover, promptly and
without lasting effect.
◼ In the majority of cases, respiratory support will ensure survival and full
recovery of the victim. 3-9
Neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP)
Illness: Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning (NSP)
Toxin: Brevetoxin
❑ Found in clams, oysters and mussels

❑ NSP is attributed to the exposure of shellfish to a group of polyethers called
brevetoxins.
❑ The toxins invo1ved in this syndrome are referred to collectively as the
brevetoxins
❑ Victims experience nausea and neurological symptoms
❑ Respiratory irritation is experienced by people in the vicinity of the toxic
blooms, due to aerosols containing the toxins
❑ Reports of such irritation can provide warning that there is a toxic bloom in
the area
3-10
Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP)
Illness: Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP)
Toxin: Domoic Acid
◼ Found in Clams, Mussels, Oysters and Scallops

◼ Caused by amino acid, domoic acid from diatoms as contaminant in shellfish
◼ Symptoms include nausea, loss
Food Involved of equilibrium,
Common Symptoms andPrevention
central neural deficits
including confusion and memory loss
◼ To these have come three additional groups of compounds:
o azaspiracid (AZA) group of toxins (causing vomiting, stomach cramps and
diarrhoea);
o the pectenotoxin (PTX) group of toxins (causing intestinal effects);
o the yessotoxin (YTX) group of toxins (which seem to affect different organs,
with the heart as a prominent target organ). 3-11
Amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP)
Illness: Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP)
Toxin: Domoic Acid
◼ Found in Clams, Mussels, Oysters and Scallops

◼ ASP is caused by an amino acid, domoic acid, as the contaminant in shellfish
Food Involved Common Symptoms Prevention
◼ Toxin found in algae from the Pacific Northwest and Canada
◼ To these have come three additional groups of compounds:
o azaspiracid (AZA) group of toxins (causing vomiting, stomach cramps and
diarrhoea);
o the pectenotoxin (PTX) group of toxins (causing intestinal effects);
o the yessotoxin (YTX) group of toxins (which seem to affect different organs,
with the heart as a prominent target organ). 3-11
Finfish Toxins
◼ Natural toxin syndromes associated with finfish, ciguatera results from the
accumulation of toxins from benthic organisms, currently believed to also be
dinoflagellates, that encrust seaweeds on tropical reefs
◼ Fugu or pufferfish poisoning results from toxins that are produced within the
pufferfish, apparently through
Food Involved
the activity of endosymbiont
Common Symptoms Prevention bacteria, rather
than through accumulation of toxins from a dietary source
◼ Scombroid toxicity results from the accumulation of histamine, or compounds
with similar effects on consumers, apparently due to degradation of flesh after
the fish are caught.
◼ It is therefore principally a handling problem
3-11
Ciguatera poisoning
Illness: Ciguatera fish poisoning
Toxin: Ciguatoxin
❖Although the name ciguatera is derived from the Spanish term for a marine
snail, the syndrome as it is currently recognized results from the consumption
of tropical fish.
❖The risk of ciguatera is highest from the consumption of herbivorous reef fish
and the carnivorous fish that feed upon them
❖Some fish toxins are detected in puffer fish, Moray eels and Fresh water
minnows
❖Some occur when predatory fish consume smaller fish that have eaten the
toxin
❖Symptoms are nausea and neurological deficits similar to but frequently
more severe and much more enduring than those of NSP
Ciguatera poisoning
Toxin: Ciguatoxin
❖Ciguatera is a more difficult problem than the shellfish toxicities because fish
swim.
❖Where shellfish beds can be monitored and their toxicity established, it is
more difficult to define and characterize the toxicity of a fish population
❖On the other hand, in contrast to the shellfish toxin syndromes, the source
organism is relatively (though not strictly) benthic, while the dinoflagellates
that supply toxins to bivalves move with the water masses.
Ciguatera poisoning
Toxin: Ciguatoxin
❖Ciguatera may therefore tend to be more persistent in a given location, in

contrast to the ephemeral nature of bivalve toxicity which arises from
transient populations of phytoplankton.
❖Near the source, the distribution of ciguatera is patchy, frequently with
distinct zones of toxicity that are recognized by local fishermen.
❖Higher carnivores, like barracuda, which both move about and can
accumulate high levels of toxicity, present more of a problem
Major Foodborne Illnesses from Fish Toxins
Illness: Scombroid poisoning
Toxin: Histamine
◼ Tuna
◼ Bonito
◼ Mackerel
◼ Mahi-mahi
➢ Caused by eating high levels of histamine in certain species of fish
➢ Histamine produced:
➢ By the bacteria on the fish when the fish are time-temperature abused
➢ Histamine is an allergic compound.
➢ Histamine does not form in fresh fish if they are used immediately and
kept below 15 C.
➢ Histamine is an allergen causing pain, inflammation and irritation and very
severe cases of histamine toxicity can lead to suffocation3-6and death.
Major Foodborne Illnesses from Shellfish Toxins
3-11
Major Foodborne Illnesses from Shellfish Toxins
3-11
Management strategies of Seafood Toxins
➢Monitoring programs can be based upon one of two fundamental approaches:
either by monitoring the water for presence of harmful algal taxa, or
monitoring shellfish for toxicity.
➢Potent toxins from certain varieties of phytoplankton accumulate through
consumptionFood
of the seafoodCommon
Involved and is always not notable
Symptoms to consumers
Prevention
➢Monitoring programs is challenging due to several factors, including the very
sporadic spatial and temporal patterns of occurrence, which demand intensive
sampling for reliable performance, the extreme potency of the toxins, requiring
that they be detected at very low levels, and the chemical nature of the toxins,
which makes it difficult to design suitable detection methods
➢Possible alternatives are control of toxigenic dinoflagellates, prediction of their
occurrence, remote detection of toxicity, and decontamination of toxic product
3-11
Management strategies of Seafood Toxins
➢Removal of toxin, either by depuration of live stock or processing of product,
would seem to have some potential.
➢However, depuration is slow, so the economics are marginal even in favorable
cases
3-11
3-11
Anthropogenic Environmental Toxins
❑ Fish are harvested from waters that are exposed to varying amounts of
industrial chemicals, pesticides, and toxic elements
❑ Both farmed and wild fish and shellfish have been shown to accumulate a
variety of environmental pollutants, such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and methylmercury (MeHg)
❑ These pollutants are associated with adverse health effects, notably the
impacts of compounds that may bind the human estrogen and androgen
receptors (ERs, ARs) and interfere with the sexual hormones homeostasis
❑ Several anthropogenic environmental factors, such as urban storm water, oil
and chemical spills, leachate from the acid sulfate soils, agricultural runoff,
sewage and industrial discharges, could introduce contaminants that become
chemically bound to fine sediments and are released later as a result of a
disturbance or change in water chemistry.
❑ Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) share in their structure the typical feature
of chlorine atoms bond to cyclic hydrocarbons.
❑ They are also lipophilic compounds that accumulate in the fat tissues of
organisms, and when comparing levels among individuals of different age or
species concentrations should be expressed on a lipid weight basis.
❑ Heavy metals, hydrocarbons and organochlorine compounds have a strong
affinity with sediments and can be accumulated via the food chain.
❑ These environmental factors affect the health of aquatic ecosystem and the
sanity of the harvesting seafood; therefore it is important to understand and
monitor the physiologic and sanitary impact of these abiotic factors or
pollutants on seafood safety and properties
❑ Common Persistent Environmental Pollutants (PEPs):
o Heavy metals
o POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
o ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES
o POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS AND OIL SPILLS
Heavy metals
❑ The most important heavy metals causing public health problems through food
are lead, cadmium and mercury.
❑ In most of the food commodities, these metal residues are found in extremely
low levels, especially in food crops of an annual nature
❑ In the case of certain marine food organisms like cephalopods, there is a
preferential accumulation of cadmium.
❑ Consequently, for foods involving cephalopods (squid/octopus) and their
products, there shall be lot wise monitoring to ensure that cadmium levels are
below the permitted level.
❑ In a similar fashion, big fishes (above 5 kg) are reported to contain significant
levels of the toxic element mercury, necessitating a routine monitoring of all
such fish species for the level of mercury.
❑ In inland fishes, lead is also found to occur at significant levels
Pesticide Residues
❑ Pesticides are generally used against plant and animal pests
❑ During rain, wind, birds etc., these pesticides from cultivation areas will find
their way into inland water bodies at first and then into the sea causing the fish
and other aquatic animals to pick up and retain the pesticide residues in their
lipid pool.
❑ Even though the level of pesticides in marine fishes is quite insignificant, the
fresh water specimens are found to harbour significantly higher levels
❑ To take care of these health problems, fish, animal and poultry raised in land-
based farms shall be subjected to lot wise monitoring for heavy metals and
pesticides before they leave the farm
Antibiotic residues
❑ Antibiotics are used for controlling diseases when life is threatened
❑ Antibiotics are widely used for protection of the farmed organisms against
certain diseases.
❑ In the absence of good farming practice and non-observance of withdrawal
period, the antibiotic residues can appear in the products of the farm
Hormone residues
❑ Farmers can also use-prohibited hormones along with some antibiotics to
promote infection-free accelerated growth of farmed animals.
❑ This can also lead to the presence of residues of anabolic steroids in the farm
products, which in turn can result in unusual physiological problems in
consumers.
❑ To exclude such hazards there shall be periodic monitoring for hormone
residues also at production source (farms)
Aflatoxins
❑ Aflatoxins are toxic carcinogens produced by certain fungus Food Safety
Hazards growing in dry food items particularly nuts, oilseeds, cakes and related
products
Molluscan shellfish depuration
➢Depuration consists of placing shellfish in flowing clean seawater such that the
animals resume normal pumping activity and thereby expel contaminants from
their gills and intestinal tract over a period of time
➢The depuration of seafood was brought about by the association between
typhoid feverFood
and Involved
raw mussel consumption.
Common Symptoms Prevention
➢At the beginning the facility disinfected seawater by using hypochlorite and
then neutralizing the seawater by adding sodium thiosulfate to eliminate the
residual chlorine.
➢ Several years later, other disinfection methods for seawater were investigated,
and included ozone and ultraviolet light.
➢Two general types of molluscan shellfish depuration plant exist and are either
(1) flow-through or (2) recirculation or closed systems
3-11
General principles of depuration
❑ The resumption of filtration activity so that contaminants are expelled
✓ This involves maintenance of the correct conditions of salinity,
temperature and dissolved oxygen
❑ The removal of contaminants
✓ By settlement and/or removal by flow away from the shellfish
✓ By applying
Food Involved
the conditionsPrevention
Common Symptoms
correct depuration for an adequate length of
time
❑ Avoidance of recontamination
✓ By operation of a batch “all-in/all-out” system
✓ By the use of clean seawater at all stages of depuration
✓ By avoiding resuspension of settled expelled material
✓ By cleaning the system thoroughly between batches
❑ Maintenance of viability and quality
✓ By correct handling before, during and after depuration 3-11
Importance of seawater quality
➢The physiological activity, pumping rate and behavioral responses of molluscan
shellfish will vary in response to changes in their seawater environment.
➢Successful depuration depends upon knowing how the environmental
parameters affect the depuration process.
➢Those factorsFood
associated
Involvedwith the seawater
Common that have
Symptoms been shown to
Prevention
significantly alter the depuration process are:
❑ Temperature,
❑ Salinity,
❑ Dissolved oxygen content,
❑ Turbidity
❑ Phytoplankton concentration
3-11
❑ Temperature
❖ The temperature of the treated seawater entering the depuration should
be within the range of 14–29 ºC
❑ Salinity Food Involved Common Symptoms Prevention

❖ Salinities of the depuration processing water may differ from the shellfish
harvesting area, shellfish should be acclimated to their new seawater
environment.
❖ The period of acclimation is variable but should be long enough to allow for
adequate pumping activity to be restored
3-11
❑ Dissolved oxygen content
❖ Molluscan shellfish require oxygen to maintain normal physiological
activities
❖ These factors include: (1) the surface area of the seawater exposed to air;
(2) the flow
Foodrate of seawater
Involved during
Common depuration;
Symptoms (3) the number of shellfish
Prevention
to be depurated; (4) the physiological activity of the shellfish during
depuration; (5) aeration; and (6) the salinity and temperature of seawater
used for depuration
❑ Turbidity and total suspended solids
❖ the dissolved oxygen levels can drop quickly and kill the shellfish in the
depuration tank
❖ Excessive turbidity will reduce the penetrating power of the UV light used
to disinfect the seawater
3-11
❑ Flow Rate
❖ Flow rates affect dissolved oxygen levels in seawater, the rate of water
disinfection, and hence the rate of shellfish depuration
❑ Shellfish Loading Rates
❖ The number Foodor volume of
Involved shellfish
Common placed intoPrevention
Symptoms a depuration tank must be
controlled if microbial loads are to be effectively reduced
❑ Recirculating vs. Flow-Through Systems
❖ Shellfish may effectively depurate microbial contaminants in either
recirculated or flow-through systems.
❖ Flow-through systems are preferable if the facility is close to a clean
seawater source.
❖ Simple UV treatment of incoming water provides further assurances of
acceptable water quality.
3-11
❑ Recirculating vs. Flow-Through Systems
❖ As a precaution, effluent should be UV-treated to prevent the introduction
of potential pathogens into shellfish-growing waters
❑ Duration of Food
Depuration
Involved Common Symptoms Prevention
❖ The duration of depuration is dependent on many factors, e.g., the
contaminant load, physiology of the shellfish, design of the depuration
system, effectiveness of water disinfection, water parameters
(temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, flow rates, etc.), shellfish loading
rates, and more.
❖ Many studies have shown the effective depuration of bacterial indicator
organisms within 48 hours in properly controlled depuration systems
3-11
Types of seawater treatment
➢Four methods exist for the disinfection of seawater used in depurating
molluscan shellfish.
➢These methods include the use of:
(1) Chlorine/hypochlorite,
✓ Disinfectant
Foodagent
✓ Chlorine is the oldest disinfection procedure for depuration waters
✓ Its effectiveness in depuration processes is only marginal due to its
extreme toxicity to shellfish.
✓ Low levels of chlorine impair shellfish pumping and hamper shellfish
depuration.
✓ Chlorinated waters can be dechlorinated using sodium thiosulfate followed
by vigorous aeration or passage through activated charcoal before addition
to depuration tanks
3-11
(2) UV light,
✓ Most often used method with bactericidal effects which disrupting
unsaturated bonds in DNA.
✓ Disinfection of seawater is effective provided the water is clear and the
exposure time
Foodis adequate.
✓ High turbidity, dinoflagellate blooms, or the white milky gametes produced
during shellfish spawning can impair light penetration and reduce the
effectiveness of UV light disinfection of seawater
(3) ozone and activated oxygen,
✓ is a strong oxidizing agent
✓ Ozonation may offer some advantages over UV light irradiation techniques.
3-11
(3) ozone and activated oxygen,
✓ Very low amounts of residual ozone in the depuration waters may enhance
the elimination of vibrios and other potential pathogens that are associated
with the gut flora of shellfish.
✓ Residual ozone in the water
Food Involved can also
Common reduce spoilage
Symptoms organisms in the gut
Prevention
and confer a longer shelf life todepurated products
(4) Iodophors
✓ Little information is available on the use of iodophors for the depuration of
molluscan shellfish
✓ Rapid bacterial reductions occurred in depuration tank water containing
0.1-0.4 mg iodophor/L
3-11
Importance of seafood depuration
➢Removal of Bacteria
➢Removal of Viruses
➢Removal of Toxins, Metals, Pesticides, and Organic Contaminants
➢Improvement in Organoleptic Qualities
3-11
Microbiological/Biological hazards
❑ The food-borne diseases are caused by a variety of agents, which can be
classified as biological hazards, chemical hazards and physical hazards.
❑ Biological hazards include pathogenic bacteria, parasites, protozoa and
viruses.
◼ COMMON PATHOGENS: Sea foods exported to other countries are strictly
checked for the occurrence of indicator and pathogenic bacteria.
◼ Staphylococcus aureus,Salmonella spp., Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio
parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus, Listeria monocytogenes
◼ Itis seen that nearly 85% of the bacterial flora seen in the skin of marine fish
are Gram negative, but in the skin surface of a typical fresh water fish they
are only 57 %. The rest are Gram positives.
3-3
◼ About 80% of the bacteria in marine water are gram negative (-ve).
◼ They are highly salt tolerant and in fact they require 2-3% salt in the medium for
normal growth. Even though marine microbes are potent spoilers, they are not
pathogens.
◼ Fish caught from off-shore waters are free from almost all pathogenic bacteria
◼ The microbes of fresh water are mostly a mixture of gram positive (+ve) and
gram –ve organisms. They are less tolerant to salt, rather, they are killed or
inhibited by salt concentrations above 0.5%.
◼ The fresh water microbes are also found to be a mixture of spoilage organisms
and human pathogens.
◼ The presence of human pathogens can be traced back to the close association
of human life and fresh water availability. 3-11
◼ The brackish water is actually a mixing area of fresh water and marine
water.
◼ Consequently, it will have salinity and microbial characteristics in
between that of fresh water and marine water.
◼ Thus, the brackish water will have a salt content of 0.5 to 2% with a
microbial flora with and without salt tolerance, characterized by the
presence of gram +ve and –ve species.
◼ However, due to the salinity the existence of human pathogens are rare
in brackish water.
3-11
◼ On death, the immune system fails and the membranes breakdown due
to autolysis exposing the sterile fish muscle to bacterial invasion.
◼ Post-mortem changes, particularly autolysis brings about a partial
breakdown of the macro-molecules, converting fish muscle into a fertile
medium for bacteria to thrive.
◼ Marine fish with a high content of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) will be a
better nutrient medium for bacteria and hence is more susceptible to
bacterial spoilage than fresh water fish with a lesser NPN content.
3-11
METHODS TO ASSESS SEAFOOD FRESHNESS AND QUALITY
◼ Physical Changes and Methods of Evaluation
◼ Chemical Methods of Evaluation of Spoilage
◼ Microbial Spoilage and Evaluation
Food Involved Common Symptoms
◼ Instrumental method for assessing seafood quality
3-11
Physical Changes and Methods of Evaluation
✓ Important changes that happen in the fish and which can be
measured physically come under physical changes.
✓ They are generally referred to as organoleptic quality characteristics.
✓ Colour, odour, appearance, texture and taste are the most common
organoleptic characteristics. Prevention
✓ By experience and training, one can easily evaluate qualitatively as
well as quantitatively (score) any change in colour, appearance,
texture, odour and taste.
✓ Such physical changes are called ‘organoleptic indices’.
3-11
✓ The important organoleptic indices of spoilage are as follows: .
o Texture: In case of fresh fish, the texture of fish meat on pressing
with finger will be firm and elastic. In other words, the distortion
created by finger pressing will be removed immediately and the
pressed surface will come back to its original shape. On spoilage,
Prevention
with extend of spoilage, the texture will gradually change to soft and
flabby with retention of finger impression or distortion of finger
pressing.
o Eyes: In case of fresh fish, the eye balls will be protruding and the
eye lens will be transparent and pupil will be jet black. On spoilage,
the eye balls will sink (Sunken eyes), the eye lens will become
opaque and cloudy.
3-11
o Gills: The gills of fresh fish will be bright red and free from mucous
deposit. With spoilage the bright red colour turns brown and then
gets bleached. The gills also get covered with thick mucous. This
mucous covering also changes its thin transparent nature to thick
Prevention
and yellow in colour on spoilage.
o The appearance of anal opening: The anal opening of fresh fish will be
normal and constricted. On spoilage, it will become red and swollen.
3-11
o Fish surface: The colour and surface of fish body also undergo changes with
spoilage. In fresh fish, the body surface will show a characteristic colour
with metallic sheen. The surface also will be covered with a thin and
transparent layer of slime. On spoilage, the characteristic colour and
metallic sheen will be lost and the surface will get covered with thick
cloudy or yellow slime.
o Cross-section: A critical observation of the cross-section of the fish is also
found to give a clear indication about the extent of spoilage. In case of
fresh fish, the tissue around backbone at the cross-section of fish will be
bluish and transparent without reddish brown colour. On spoilage, the
muscle will turn waxy and opaque with or without reddish brown
discoloration.
3-11
Chemical Methods of Evaluation of Spoilage
▪ Trimethylamine (TMA)
❑ Trymethylamine is responsible for the fishy smell in marine fish.
❑ Estimation of TMA is an excellent method of estimating freshness of fish.
❑ TMA is formed
Foodfrom trimethylamine
Involved oxide (TMAO)
Common Symptoms which is an
Prevention
osmoregulatory and buffering compound found in many marine teleosts,
elasmobranchs and shellfish like shrimp.
❑ Fresh water fish contain very little amount of TMAO and this method of
assessment of freshness is not suitable to them.
❑ A value above 10-15 mg TMA nitrogen/100 g fish can be regarded spoiled
and not edible.
3-11
▪ Total Volatile Base (TVB)
❑ Total volatile base refers to all the volatile basic compounds and comprises
mainly trimethylamine and ammonia.
❑ The TVB-N value along with TMA is the most common index of quality
universally used for deciding
Food Involved
the state of freshness
Common Symptoms
of fish.
Prevention
❑ A level of 35-40 mg% TVB-N nitrogen/100 g fish is usually regarded as the
limit of acceptability beyond which the fish can be regarded as too spoiled.
❑ While TMA value can only be used for estimating freshness of marine fish,
TVB values can be used for estimating spoilage of both marine and fresh
water fish.
❑ Hence, TVB values have a wider application in quality evaluation of fish than
TMA.
3-11
Histamine
In fish, including mackerel, tuna, bonito, herring and sardine the production
of toxic amine (histamine) is an indication of spoilage.
Histamine along with other amines (e.g. cadaverine) causes high toxicity.
Dark fleshed fishInvolved
Food have highCommon
histidine (an amino acid)
Symptoms content and spoilage
Prevention
organisms convert it into histamine.
Histamine is determined either by the HPLC method or by spectro-
flurometric method.
3-11
Peroxide Value (PV)
It measures peroxides and hydroperoxides.
The most common method is based on iodometric titration which
measures the iodine produced from potassium iodide (KI) by the peroxide
present in the oil.
The PV is a good guide to quality of fat.
Fresh oil should have PV 1 meq/kg (mill equivalent/kg). On storage, it may
increase to 10 meq/kg.
3-11
Peroxide Value (PV)
Oxidative rancidity in fish meat is measured by estimating the peroxide
value.
Oxidative rancidity occurs at a fast rate in fatty fishes like sardine and
mackerel.
The PV is estimated by noting the amount of iodine released from

potassium iodide by the hydroperoxide formed by oxidation of fat.
The iodine released is estimated by titrimetric determination using a
standard solution (0.002 N Na2 SO3) of sodium thiosulphate.
PV = numbers of millilitres of 0.002 N sodium thiosulphate needed to
titrate the iodine liberated by 1 g of fat extracted from fish.
When PV is above 10-20, the fish is said to be rancid.
3-11
Thiobarbituric Acid Value (TBA)
TBA measures the malonaldehyde produced during fat oxidation.
TBA reacts specifically with malonaldehyde to give a red chromogen, which can
be determined spectrophotometrically.
PV value is the first reaction during oxidation of fat by forming hydroperoxides.
But then, slowly the hydroperoxides breakdown to substances that give the
objectionable rancid flavour.
These compounds react with thiobarbituric acid to form pink coloured
complexes. These are photometrically estimated.
TBA value is expressed as micromoles of malonaldehyde present in 1 g of fat
extracted from the sample.
When a TBA value is above 2, the fish can be considered
3-11rancid.
Microbial Spoilage and Evaluation
◼ Based on salinity, the habitat of fish can be classified into three categories.
◼ They are the Marine, brackish and Spoilage Indices fresh water habitats.
The nature of micro-organisms in these habitats are found to vary.
◼ Microbial Spoilage largely determine the quality of fresh and lightly
preserved fish products.
◼ Ahigh bacterial count indicates the level of contamination of the products,
conditions of storage, the extent of spoilage etc.
◼ Determination of total bacterial count (TBC) or aerobic plate count (APC) is
widely used to assess the quality of fish and fish products.
◼ In freshly landed marine fish, the aerobic plate count will be in the range of
103to 106(1,000 – 10,00,000) CFU/g (colony forming unit/g).
3-11
Determination of Aerobic Plate Count (APC)
◼ Measurement of APC is the most common method for the determination
of quality of seafood.
◼ APC is also known as total bacterial count (TBC), total plate count (TPC),
total viable count
Food (TVC) or
Involved total mesophilic
Common Symptoms heterotrophic
Prevention count.
◼ The common pour plate method is still most widely used for the
determination of APC. It is assumed that each visible colony is the result
of multiplication of a single colony-forming unit on the surface of the
medium.
◼ Direct count method using microscope is a rapid way of estimating
bacterial count. The action of spoilage organisms on fish generates
unpleasant odours and flavours.
3-11
Determination of Aerobic Plate Count (APC)
◼ They produce hydrogen sulphide and
reduce trimethylamine oxide (TMAO)
to trimethylamine.
◼ Shewanella
Foodputrefaciens
Involved is the most
important fish spoilage bacteria of
marine fish.
◼ Vibrios are other important spoilage
bacteria.
3-11
Faecal Indicator Organisms
◼ Escherichia coli (E.coli) and faecal streptococci are normally present in
the intestinal tract of men and animals, so the excreta of these animals
contain large numbers of these organisms (105-109/g).
◼ Therefore, its Involved
Food presence in food orSymptoms
Common water is generally considered as an
Prevention
indication of faecal contamination..
◼ Indicator organisms are usually enumerated by using MPN (most
probable number) technique.
3-11
◼ A careful analysis of the concentration of certain products of autolysis
and bacterial spoilage with extent of spoilage is shown to provide a
direct relationship between spoilage and their concentration.
◼ A measure of such products of spoilage will give a clear objective idea
about theFood
extent of spoilage.
Involved Common Symptoms
◼ Since these products are chemical compounds they are called chemical
indices of spoilage.
◼ The most important chemical indices of spoilage are:
◼ 1) pH: As a result of increasing spoilage, the amounts of basic substances
produced in the fish tissue increase steadily producing an increase in pH
from acidic side to neutral and to alkaline pH.
◼ Thus, an alkaline pH (>7) for fish muscle is a sure indication
3-11
of spoilage.
◼ 2) The content of total volatile bases or content of ammonia (TVBN) in
fresh water fish/content of TMA in marine fish also increases with
spoilage. For fresh water fish, the total volatile base nitrogen (TVBN)
content will be <20-25mg per 100g fish.
◼ On the other hand, totalCommon
Food Involved volatileSymptoms
base nitrogen content of fresh marine
fish will be <30 to 35mg per 100g muscle. TVBN values above these
tolerance limits are an indication of spoilage.
◼ 3) The nucleotide degradation product hypoxanthine is also found to
increase with spoilage. Consequently, a measure of hypoxanthine will
give an index of spoilage and in fresh fish hypoxanthine content is found
to be less than 25 mg per 100 g fish muscle.
3-11
◼ 4) Free ammonia and hydrogen sulphide are also found to emanate
from spoiled fish.
◼ The presence of ammonia can be detected by white fumes when
exposed to hydrogen chloride gas.
◼ Similarly,Food
the Involved
emanationCommon Symptoms
of hydrogen sulphide gas can be detected by
blackening of a piece of lead acetate paper exposed to the vicinity of fish
3-11
Instrumental method for assessing seafood quality
◼ These methods have the advantage of not being subject to human
vagaries and therefore are more easily reproducible and reliable.
◼ Freshness Meter
◼ Based onFood
the Involved
changes taking
Commonplace in the electrical
Symptoms properties of fish
Prevention
muscle such as conductance and capacitance, a freshness meter which
has a scale reading from 0 to 16 has been developed at Torry Research
Station (UK) known as Torrymeter (TM).
◼ A similar meter with a wider range of 0-100 Intelectron known as Fish
Tester (IFT) has been developed in Germany.
3-11
◼ Freshness Meter
◼ These meters give quick and reliable indication of fresh fish quality in
tropical fish. In Torrymeter, highest value of 16 is obtained for very fresh
fish and the readings decrease
Food Involved
with spoilage, Prevention
Common Symptoms
however varies with
species.
◼ The Freshness Grader developed in Iceland is a commercial success in
this series. The grade measurement is faster and correlates well with
sensory (odour) and chemical (TMA-value) assessment of freshness.
3-11
◼ Texture Measurement
◼ The texture of the fish is often a good measure of the quality and can be
determined most often in a shear or compression cell.
◼ The Universal Testing Machine
Food Involved Common(UTM) and other
Symptoms commercial
Prevention
texturometers (RHEO TEX, Japan) are used to measure objective textural
quality.
3-11
Fish allergens
◼ Food allergy is an abnormal reaction of the body ’ s immune system to certain
foods.
◼ Substances in foods causing such reactions are referred to as allergens/antigens
and are naturally occurring proteins
◼ Fish and Shellfish Species Known to Cause Allergic Reactions
Fish allergens
◼ Fish allergy is often manifested in small children and tends to be persistent into
adulthood, other food allergies, such as egg and milk, with similar early onset
are typically outgrown because of tolerance development
◼ Products derived from fish and shellfish, such as glucosamine, chitinous
polymers, some calcium supplements, fish gelatin, and fish oils, may also
produce allergic reactions
Food Involved in Common
some individuals
Symptoms depending on the concentration
Prevention
of residual fish proteins.
◼ Fish oils and fish oil capsules with high omega - 3 PUFA contents have potential
allergenic risks if residual proteins are present
◼ Food allergens have high thermostability conferred by intramolecular disulfide
bonds, posttranslational N - glycosylation, resistance to proteolysis, and an
enhanced capacity to bind ligands like cations, lipids, or steroids.
3-11
Fish allergens
◼ Fish and shellfish, collective allergens contain common allergenic protein
sharing a high degree of amino acid homology across the different species of
the group.
◼ Major allergen is parvalbumin, amino acid residues
◼ Parvalbumins are abundant in the fast
Common skeletal muscles
Symptoms of Altantic cod, Atlantic
Prevention
herring, salmon, carp, Atlantic mackerel, tilapia and frog
◼ parvalbumin that controls calcium switching in muscular skeletal cells
◼ Fish parvalbumins are considered to be the major and sole allergens for 95% of
patients suffering from IgE-mediated fish allergy
◼ Different type of allergic reactions related to crustaceans are tropomyosins
◼ Tropomyosins up to 43 % of fish-allergic individuals may also be allergic to
shellfish 3-11
Fish allergens
◼ Allergic tropomyosins are heat stable and they have varying degrees of cross-
reactivity between the different crustacean and mollusc species, depending on
the degree of sequence homology of their tropomyosin molecules
◼ Tropomysin is also the important allergen found in mites and other insects, and
there is significant sequence homology between mite tropomyosin and
crustacean tropomyosin Common Symptoms Prevention
3-11
Questions?
74
Technology
Meat and Poultry Technology

BSc FST, MSc LiSBE (FSB), PhD, Cert. (Nano and Nanosensors, Fish Production and Ocean Governance)
Overview: Meat and Poultry Technology
1) Background
2) Fundamentals of Food and Meat Science
3) Meat Animals and Abattoir Practices
4) Fresh Meat Technology
5) Processed Meat Technology
Background
Poultry keepers: 3.7 mil

households Annual meat Production:
Annual production: 79.1 78,110 tons
mil
Local breeds: 38.5 mil
Improved breeds: 40.6 mil
Processing companies: 10
Per capita consumption meat: Processing capacity: 39,800
2.07 kg birds per day
Per capita consumption eggs:
106 • Import: Parent stock chicks and
eggs
Annual egg production: 3.6 billion • Import: US$ 225,000
eggs • Country of Origin: Nerthelands,
India, England, France, Kenya,
Source: MLF 2018/19 Zambia
Background
◼ Tanzania has the second largest livestock population in Africa after
Ethiopia, accounting for 11% of African cattle population.
◼ There are approximately 32.2 million cattle, 20 million goats and 5.5 million
sheep. Other livestock include 38.5 million local breed chicken, 40.6 million
exotic breed chicken, 2 million pigs and 636,997 donkeys.
◼ Despite such wealth, livestock and fisheries subsectors have an annual
growth rate at 4.9% and 9.2% respectively with a low GDP contribution of
7.6% and 1.71 % respectively.
◼ Accounts for 82% of red meat production in Tanzania
◼ Per capita consumption: 15kg
◼ .
Background
◼ Beef production in Tanzania is concentrated in the central regions of;
Manyara, Tabora, Singida and Dodoma, accounting for 43% of the total
beef production in the country.
◼ Production: 2.7bil lt
◼ Of which:
➢ 1.8 bil lt (Traditional breed)
➢ 900 mil lt (Improved breed)
➢ Per capita consumption: 47lt
◼ FAO per capita consumption on dairy is 200 lt/annum. Tanzania is

consuming 76.5% less than the standard requirement. .
Background
◼ With over 50 mil population of livestock, Tanzania has potential to produce
7.6 mil pieces of hides & skin per annum
◼ Tanzania is the 14th largest producer of hides & skin in Africa.
◼ 70% of the product is exported in raw form.
Background
◼ Trends of Meat and Meat Products Production in Tanzania from 2014
Type 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21
Beef (MT) 319,112 323,775 394,604 471,692 479,071 486,736.10 508,355.17
Goat/sheep meat (MT) 124,745 129,292 144,597 92,999 94,453 95,964.30 102,137.22
Pork (MT) 54,360 79,200 18,899 37,191 37,773 38,377.40 41,467.82
Chicken (MT) 99,540 104,292 63,597 78,110 79,332 80,601.30 86,205.78
Milk (‘000” liters) 2,058,726 2,127,267 2,087,000 2,400,134 2,678,461 3,002,555 3,101,384
Eggs (‘000” individuals) 4,153,800 4,353,182 2,758,000 3,156,692 3,575,621 4,051,179 4,510,345
Fundamentals of Meat Sciences
◼ Meat has been an integral part of the human diet contributing significantly to the
supply of high quality animal protein, energy, and essential micronutrients.
◼ It is a concentrated source of essential nutrients and important for human growth
and development especially brain, intellectual development, and bipedalism.
◼ The skeletal muscle is the principal muscle tissue in meat, although very little of
smooth tissue is also present.
◼ The main connective tissue types are adipose tissue (fat), bone and connective tissue
proper
◼ Animal musculature is mostly of Mesodermal origin.
◼ There are more than 300 muscles in the animal body.
◼ These muscles constitute about 30-45% of the live weight or 35-60% of the carcass
weight of meat animals.
◼ In addition to the skeletal muscle, which forms the bulk of meat, a
little of smooth and cardiac muscles are also present in blood vessels
and heart respectively.
◼ Muscle tissue contains approximately 75% water and 25% solids, of
which 19% are proteins.
◼ Lipids constitute about 2.5 to 5% of muscle.
◼ Water is the largest component comprising two third to three fourth
of the muscle tissue.
◼ Due to polar behavior, water molecules are attached with the
electrically charged groups of muscle proteins.
◼ About 40.5% of the total water in muscle is so tightly bound that
it is almost impossible to dislocate it.
◼ Most of the water exists in immobilized and free forms.
◼ It may be noted that almost 70% of water content in fresh meat is
located within the myofibrils.
◼ Further, an increased water holding capacity is associated with
juiciness and tenderness of cooked meat.
◼ Protein
Muscle proteins have been broadly classified into three categories:
i) Myofibrillar proteins -- soluble in dilute salt solution. Includes
contractile proteins, regulatory proteins and cytoskeleton protein
◼
ii) Sarcoplasmic proteins -- soluble in water or very dilute salt solution. It
includes myoglobin, hemoglobin, enzymes associated with glycolysis, the
tricarboxylic acid cycle and the electron transport chain, flavour proteins
◼
iii) Stroma or connective. Tissue proteins -- almost insoluble. These are
referred as insoluble protein fraction of muscle.
◼ Lipids
Lipid is a major component of the carcass of a meat animal. It is
highly variable and is inversely proportional to the moisture
content.
◼ Meat mainly contains saturated and mono unsaturated fatty acids.
◼ Commonly occurring saturated fatty acids of meat are palmitic
acid and stearic acid. Oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids are major
unsaturated fatty acids in meat.
◼ Carbohydrates
Immediately after slaughter, muscle normally contains a very
small amount (nearly 1%) of glycogen.
◼ It is a macromolecule of glucose residues which serves as a
reserve polysaccharide of animal tissue.
◼ However, it gets worked up before the completion of rigor
mortis and plays a key role in attaining the ultimate muscle pH.
◼ Both the rate and amount of glycolysis influence the colour,
tenderness and water holding capacity of meat.
◼ Minerals
About 3.5% of the total body weight is inorganic matter. Most of
the total body inorganic material is located in skeletal tissue primarily
as salts of calcium and phosphorus and some other minerals
especially magnesium.
◼ In living meat animal, there are essential minerals like calcium,
phosphorus, sodium, potassium, sulphur, chlorine, magnesium, iron
etc. and trace elements like manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt.
◼ Serve a variety of important functions. These functions may be
physical, chemical or biological depending on the chemical form and
the location in body tissues and fluids.
◼ Vitamins
The vitamin content of meat is variable, depending on thespecies
and age of the animal, the degree of fatness and type of feed
received by the animal. Water-soluble vitamins are localized in lean
tissues whereas fat-soluble vitamins in fatty tissues. Variety meats
have substantial amounts of B-complex vitamins.
◼ The exudates from cut meat surfaces and drip loss during thawing
of frozen meat contain an appreciable amount of B-complex
vitamins and amino acids. Most of the vitamins in meat are
relatively stable during processing or cooking. However, thiamine or
to some extent vitamin B6 are susceptible to heat treatment.
Chemical and Biochemical Constituents of
Muscle
◼ General organization of the muscle.
◼ Skeletal muscle predominantly consists of muscle fibers and connective
tissue.
◼ The latter is distributed on three levels of scale in the muscle: the
endomysium, which surrounds each muscle fiber, the perimysium,
which compartmentalizes muscle in fiber bundles, and finally the
epimysium, which is the external envelope of muscle.
◼ Within the fibers, the myofibrils occupy nearly the entire intracellular
volume.
◼ The contractile unit of the muscle fiber is the sarcomere.
Chemical and Biochemical Constituents of Muscle
Chemical and Biochemical Constituents of Muscle
Preslaughter operations
◼ Various preslaughter factors have significant effects on the quality of
meat produced.
◼ The animal should not be exposed to undue pain or stress at the farm,
in transit, or during slaughter
◼ Proper animal welfare also helps in meeting the growing concern of consumers
towards the animal welfare and slaughter conditions, maintaining good standards
during preslaughter handling and slaughter, and ensuring worker safety as large
animals may sometimes become furious when agitated
◼ At the farm
❑ At the farm, proper management practices and monitoring should be
followed to produce clean and healthy animals.
❑ Meat animals should be reared under proper hygienic conditions and
regularly fed and vaccinated.
❑ The production of animals with dirt or dung or soil attached to the
body requires more labor to clean it and increases the risk of
production of contaminated meat or carcasses leading to considerable
loss to the meat industry annually.
◼ Transportation of animals
❑ During transport, animals should be comfortable and protected from
loss of weight, injuries, and diseases.
❑ The vehicles or other means of transport should be properly designed,
constructed, and well maintained as per standards to avoid injury and
stress to animals, such as antislip floors, adequate lighting, proper
bedding, etc.
❑ Proper sanitary and hygienic conditions should be maintained.
❑ During transport, animals should be comfortable and protected from
loss of weight, injuries, and diseases.
❑ The vehicles or other means of transport should be properly designed,
constructed, and well maintained as per standards to avoid injury and
stress to animals, such as antislip floors, adequate lighting, proper
bedding, etc.
❑ Proper sanitary and hygienic conditions should be maintained.
❑ The following preslaughter operation should be observed during
transportation:
✓ Loading and unloading. ✓ Welfare assessment in transit
✓ Fitness to travel ✓ Shrinkage and mortality in transit
✓ Vehicles ✓ Arrival
✓ Operator duties ✓ Unloading
✓ Transport preparation
✓ Preloading precautions
✓ Loading
✓ Journey
◼ Lairage (holding pens)
❑ Lairage is the area adjacent to the slaughterhouse where animals are
rested prior to slaughter.
❑ Its main function is to provide a secure holding area for the animals,
offer protection from the elements (especially extreme weather
conditions), and provide drinking water and adequate space to lie and
rest.
❑ Animals should spend, 24 h in a lairage.
❑ The lairage should have proper ventilation and facilities to protect animals from
harsh weather conditions such as rain and/or very high or low temperatures.
❑ To protect animals from direct sunlight, provisions for shade should be provided.
◼ Lairage (holding pens)
❑ During stay at lairage, animals should be monitored for any symptoms of heat or
cold stress such as panting or shivering in pigs, etc.
❑ During stay at lairage, proper care should be undertaken to avoid any stress to
animals as stress affect meat quality and compromise animal welfare issues.
❑ For smooth driving of pigs, solid push boards are recommended as electric
goads lead to increased heart rate and carcass damage.
❑ Observe:
✓ Lairage design, Watering and fasting, Feeding, Preslaughter rest, Bruises and
traumatic injuries, Antemortem inspection.
Factors Affecting Composition of Meat
◼ Species
◼ Breed
◼ Sex
◼ Age
◼ Anatomical Location of Muscles
◼ Training and Exercise
◼ Plane of Nutrition
◼ Species
➢ Species of meat animal affects the composition of meat greatly.
➢ It is also evident from the table containing the composition of different species
meat.
➢ For example, total nitrogen content (fat-free) i.e., nitrogen factor for pork has
ranged from 3.45 to 3.6, for mutton it is 3.50 and for beef it ranges from 3.4 to
3.65.
➢ Again, pig muscles have more linoleic acid than cattle or sheep where as sheep
muscles have relatively higher content of stearic acid.
◼ Breed
◼ Breed exerts important intrinsic influence on biochemical composition
of muscle as well as meat.
◼ Cattle of different breeds or different genotypes of the same breed
differ primarily in their connective tissue characteristics (collagen cross -
linking and solubility), content, and composition of intramuscular fat
and/or the characteristics of their muscle fibers (slow - oxidative, fast -
oxidoglycolytic, fast glycolytic)
◼ Nitrogen - and sulfur - compounds, free amino acids, alcohols, aldehydes,
and ketones in the flavor volatiles differ in the meat from different
breeds of cattle .
◼ Sex
◼ Chemical composition of meat also varies with the sex of the meat
animal.
◼ Generally, intranscular fat content of male animal is less than female
and that of castrated animal is more than the sexually entire animals
◼ Sex and carcass maturity also affect off - flavors.
◼ Beef from bulls has a more livery, bloody flavor than that from heifers,
which appears to be related to higher 2 – propanone and ethanol
contents
◼ Age
◼ The composition of meat varies with the advancement of age of the
meat animal irrespective of species, breed and sex.
◼ There is a trend of general increase in most parameters other than water
with the increasing age.
◼ With increasing age, there is great increase in intramuscular fat and in
myoglobin content, lesser increase in total and sarcoplamic nitrogen and
the decrease in moisture.
◼ Connective tissue content of muscle varies greatly with the age of the
animal.
◼ Age
◼ In young, salt soluble collagen concentration is higher than the adult
one because the degree of intra and intermolecular cross-linking
between the polypeptide chains in collagen increases with increasing
animal age.
◼ Anatomical Location of Muscles
◼ Anatomical location of muscles is the most complex intrinsic factor
affecting the composition of meat.
◼ Certain chemical parameters of beef muscles from different anatomic
allocations
◼ Training and Exercise
◼ Composition of meat also depend on training and exercise of the
animals to some extent.
◼ The muscles which are used more during exercise and training, are
darker in colour due to more myoglobin content.
◼ Systematic training over a period of time results in increased stores of
muscle glycogen and ultimately leads to lower ultimate pH(post-
mortem)
◼ Level of nutrition affects the composition of meat as it has a general
effect on the growth of the meat animals.
◼ Fat of the animals which are maintained on ahigh plane of nutrition, is
synthesized from carbohydrates and this fat has lower iodine number.
◼ In poorly fed and emaciated animals, linoleic acid is more and palmitic
acid is less.
◼ If pigs are fed with high level of unsaturated fat, then there will be
deposition of unsaturated intramuscular fat in their body.
◼ In sheep, high plane of nutrition increases the content of
intramuscular fat and decreases moisture percentage.
◼ Undernutrition leads to marked increase in the water content of
muscles, increase in the percentage of intramuscular collagen and
decrease in salt-soluble and acid-soluble components.
FACTORS AFFECTING QUALITY
OF MEAT
Meat Quality
◼ Quality is dynamic and is never absolute and because of this it means many things
to many people.
◼ In simple words 'Meat Quality' refers to some characteristics of meat (viz.,
attractive colour, tenderness, flavour, water holding capacity) which should be
present in a portion of meat (or in a meat sample) to call it a good quality meat.
◼ Based on these desirable characteristics, meat quality can be categorized as follows:
Meat Quality
◼ Functional Quality
◼ Yield reflects how much saleable meat product you get from an animal and this is
the determining factor for economics of meat production.
◼ Functional properties such as pH, WHC are of chief importance to the processors
who produce processed meat products for the consumers.
◼ Composition of meat as well as functional properties will determine the quality of
processed products in terms of juiciness, texture/tenderness, flavour and to some
extent product appearance
◼ Post mortem pH decline rate and ultimate pH play very crucial roles in determining
the final quality of meat and affects both colour and WHC
◼ Water holding capacity and colour are determinants of quality
Meat Quality
◼ Palatability Factors
◼ Important eating quality parameters of meat and meat products are co1oul;jsriness.
texture and tenderness, and flavour/odour, although the liking for the parameters
varies from culture to culture
◼ For example, in many developed countries people prefer their meat to be tender
and the value of different cuts or joints reflects this.
◼ On the contrary, many Africans prefer their meat to be "chewy".
◼ Similarly, in Indian many people prefer 'bone-in' meat (especially mutton and
chevon) compared to deboned meat for meat curry (major house-hold meat
preparation).
Meat Quality
◼ Palatability Factors
◼ Wholesomeness with regards to any food encompasses microbial safety, freedom
from harmful chemical residues and availability of nutrients expected to be there in
a particular type of food.
◼ Therefore, meat must be safe to eat, both in terms of freedom from parasites that
may also infect humans, and microbial pathogens and hazardous chemicals.
◼ At the same time, it must be positively beneficial to the consumer's health in
contributing minerals, vitamins and high value protein and possibly essential fatty
acids to their diet.
PRE-SLAUGHTER FACTORS AFFECTING
MEAT QUALITY
Preslaughter factors
◼ Pre-slaughter factors are those which occur before the slaughter of the animal for
meat purpose such as animal factor, managemental factors and ante-mortem
factors.
◼ Animal and managemental factors are called as on-farm factors and traditionally,
they are considered to be the most important, but under modem production
systems, similar importance have also been given to ante-mortem handling of the
animals and post-mortem handling of the carcasses.
➢ Animal Factors
➢ Managemental Factors
➢ Ante-mortem Factors
◼ Animal Factors
➢ (a)Species: Meat* obtained from different species of animals have species specific
quality
➢ (b)Breed: Within the same species, different breeds of animals different meat
quality.
❑ The best quality beef is often obtained from traditional beef breeds of cattle.
❑ Beef breeds produce higher meat-bone ratio and such meat is more tender, juicy and
flavourful due to higher degree of marbling.
➢ Different breeds of animal have different inherent amounts of intra-muscular fat.
➢ The beef from humped indigenous cattle tends to be tougher than that from exotic
breeds
◼ Animal Factors
➢ (c)Age: As used in meat grading standards, maturity is defined as the physiological
age of the animals or birds from which carcasses are produced.
➢ Maturity or age at slaughter is very closely related to meat tenderness.
➢ In general, tenderness decreases with increasing age.
➢ Therefore, meat from a young animal is more tender than from a mature animal of
the same species and breed.
➢ This is mainly because of changes in inter-molecular cross-linkages in collagen
fibres.
➢ In young animals, these cross-linkages ‘are less in number and are more easily
broken.
➢ As the animal grows older, the number of cross-linkages increases and the linkages
are converted to stable linkages.
◼ Animal Factors
➢ (c)Age:
➢ Age has profound effect on the colour and flavour of meat.
➢ With the advancement of animal age, the muscle colour becomes darker due to
increasing myoglobin (Mb) concentration.
➢ Such muscles, when used in processed meats contribute positively to the
development of desirable product colour.
➢ (d) Location of muscles: Location of muscles in the carcass is also important as
there are distinct differences in tenderness between muscles.
➢ Muscles of the limbs, neck, etc. (where the workload) are more become tougher
due to high degree of movement with the advancement of age compared to
muscles of loin which require little or no mobilization (movement) during day-
today activities
◼ Animal Factors
➢ (e)Sex: Sex of the animal determines the rate and extent of fat deposition, growth
➢ rate as well as development of some odourous compounds in the body related to
sexual maturity which affect the quality of meat.
➢ In general, males have less intramuscular fat than females, whereas castrated
animals of any sex have more intra-muscular fat than corresponding entire animal.
➢ The muscles of male animals tend to be larger than corresponding muscles in
females and castration in male reduces the efficiency of weight gain in comparison
to entire animals.
➢ But sometimes, 'boar-taint', an objectionable onion like or perspiratory
odour is noted by some consumers in the pork from entire male (boar)and
this is mainly due to the presence of a metabolite of testosterone,5α androst-
16en- 3 one in the edible tissues.
◼ Managemental Factors
(a) System of rearing:
➢ Among the managemental factors, the most important is the system of animal
rearing.
➢ Free range animals have the potential to have access to variety of feed stuffs prior
to slaughter that may affect the flavour of the meat.
➢ Meat from grass finished cattle is of lower quality and less tender from grain fed
cattle.
➢ Animals reared in more ideal conditions will have better growth rate, uniform fat
deposition and will produce better quality meat. Free range animals have more
muscle pigments than their stall-fed counterparts.
➢ A high plane of nutrition and a diet low in iron lead to low myoglobin
concentration.
◼ (b) Feeding: Feeding of high energy carbohydrate diets leads to faster growth and
fat deposition in all livestock.
◼ Feeding of meat animals with fish meal, certain plants such as sting weed, certain
strains of clove and other legumes may produce meat with abnormal flavour (taint).
◼ Use of high concentration of animal manure as a source of organic nitrogen may
also lead to tainting of meat.
◼ (c)Treatment: Some volatile chemicals such as turpentine, linseed oil, ammonia (gas)
used in veterinary practices may lead to tainting of meat.
◼ Of course, this can be managed by chilling of affected dressed carcasses for 24
hours.
◼ Care must be taken to provide adequate gap between medication and slaughter, so
that veterinary drug residues are not present in the meat.
◼ Ante-mortem Factors
(a) Pre-slaughter handling:
◼ The size of the slaughter hall depends on the species and size of animals, capacity
of animals and dressing technique applied
◼ In a slaughter hall, there should be sufficient space for various operations and to
avoid cross contaminations of carcasses as well as proper ventilation and lighting
required for various operations.
◼ The transit of animals from lairage to slaughter hall should be stress free.
◼ The animals awaiting slaughter should not view the slaughter of other animals and
avoid large noise, strange noise, movements, smell of blood and sight, etc., as it may
lead to fear and distress in condition when animal is already having fear due to loss
of protection by separating from its original social group
(a) Pre-slaughter handling:
◼ Animals exposed to long term pre-slaughter stress have reduced glycogen content
in the muscles at slaughter.
◼ As a result, upon onset of rigor mortis, pH decline does not proceed at a normal
rate and the ultimate pH is higher than normal (≥6.5) resulting in DFD meat and
meat and meat gets spoiled rapidly due to high pH.
◼ Poorly designed holding and handling facilities in the lairage and other conditions
that induce stress just prior to slaughter result in PSE meat, a lower pH than
normal with very poor water holding capacity.
◼ During cooking, PSE meat loses a high amount of moisture resulting in drier,
tougher and less flavourful meat.
◼ (b) Transportation: The transportation phase of livestock marketing can be one
of the most important event affecting meat quality.
◼ Most animals are transported by trucks to urban abattoirs. Most death losses and
tissue bruising occur during transit. Improperly ventilated trucks, warm climatic
conditions, overloading etc. can result in extreme stress to the animals resulting in
poor quality of carcass and loss of weight which is referred to as 'shrinkage.
◼ However, under normal marketing conditions the muscle weight is not affected,
even though animals may lose 2 to 5 per cent of their live weight mainly due to loss
of contents of gastro-intestinal tract.
(c)Stunning/lmmobilization method:
◼ The type of stunning method used can affect meat quality, either by short-term pre-
slaughter stress or by affecting bleeding (exsanguination).
◼ Therefore, stunning process is not completely free from stress, but definitely
reduces stress responses compared to exsanguination without stunning.
◼ The severity of stress of stunning process is usually expressed in muscles by the
degree of glycogen depletion.
◼ These differences in glycogen content in muscles will determine the ultimate pH
and the physical properties of meat.
Preslaughter Handling and Care
◼ Handling of animals should conform to humane standards at every
stage. It will safeguard the animal welfare as well as meat quality. Rough
handling of animals before slaughter can result in several physiological
stresses.
◼ It is particularly important in hot weather when lot of heat builds up in
stationary trucks.
◼ It is advisable not to mix strange animals shortly before slaughter in
order to avoid fighting amongst them, especially males.
◼ Lairage serves as resting ground for the tired and stressed animals.
Resting period depends on the length and mode of journey, animal
species, age, sex, condition. Undue holding is also not advised.
Preslaughter Handling and Care
◼ Lairage should have adequate litter and drainage to avoid faecal
soiling of skin.
◼ The fed of animals should be with held for 12-18 hrs before
slaughter whereas ample drinking water should be made available
during this period.
◼ It lowers the bacterial load in the intestine and facilities easy
removable of the hide or skin during dressing of carcases.
◼ Stunning made more effective and brightness of the carcass is also
improved.
Ante-mortem Examination of Meat Animals
◼ Ante mortem Examination should be conducted 12-24 hrs before slaughter of meat
animals due to:
➢ Detection of animals suffering from scheduled infectious diseases which are
communicable to man.
➢ To detect certain diseases which are toxic or contagious and whose identification is
either difficult or impossible during post mortem, e.g. tetanus, rabies, farcy,
listeriosis, septic metritis, sturdy in sheep etc.
➢ To prevent food poisoning out breaks e.g. in salmonellosis carcass or organs show
little noticeable change on post mortem
➢ To make postmortem examination more efficient, accurate and less laborious.
➢ To protect the health of butchers and slaughter house personnel.
➢ To prevent unnecessary contamination of building and equipment of the abattoir.
➢ To implement disease control programme with more precision by tracing back the
Dressing Techniques For Cattle
1. After stunning, the animal is hoisted by one leg to the overhead rail, it
is brought above bleeding trough or gully and an incision is made just
in front of sternum cutting the main blood vessels.
2. A bleeding time of 6-8 minutes is allowed.
3. A cut is made across the larynx, the weasand (oesophagus) is tied off
and the head is skinned and detached at the atlas joint.
4. Now the forelegs or the shanks are removed.
5. The hind legs are skinned and removed while the carcass is hung by
tendons on the spreader.
6. Deskinning (flaying) is carried forward from hind and forequarters
and hide is now pulled with the help of hide puller.
Dressing Techniques For Cattle
7. Brisket is opened along with the midline and the pelvic cavity is
opened along the abdominal cavity. Evisceration commences and
pluck as well as viscera is removed. These are taken to their respective
offal for cleaning and examination.
8. Now the carcases is sawn into two halves along the vertebral
column.
9. Spray washing of the carcass.
10. Transfer to the chilling room
Postmortem Inspection of Meat Carcasses
◼ Postmortem inspection involves visual perception and palpation of
organs and tissues, incisions where necessary and laboratory tests
wherever confirmation is required.
◼ Many diseases and abnormal conditions not detectable on Antemortem,
necessitate a careful postmortem inspection due to:
➢ To detect and eliminate abnormalities from the carcass and organs
including contamination, thus ensuring that only meat fit for human
consumption is passed for food.
➢ To check the efficiency of slaughter and carcass dressing.
➢ To diagnose disease conditions for control purpose.
➢ To ensure that carcasses, parts or organs marked unfit for human

Meat Quality Parameters
❑ Fresh meat can be referred as a product which has undergone imminent
postmortem changes following slaughter but has not been subjected to
any processing. Some characteristics of fresh and raw meat:
➢ Meat Color
➢ Water Holding Capacity
➢ Marbling
➢ pH of Meat
➢ Texture of meat
➢ Tenderness of meat
➢ Quantum of connective Tissue
➢ Firmness
Meat Color
❑ This is the total visual perception of meat.
❑ The hue (primary colour), chroma (intensity) and the value

(brightness) of meat colour are based on the quantity of principal
muscle pigment-myoglobin and its chemical state.
❑ It is for this reason that meat colour varies with species, sex, age and
even among different muscles of the same species.
❑ Myoglobin content of more active species and muscles is higher than
the passive ones.
Meat Color
❑ Typical colour of meat from various species
Buffalo meat and beef Cherry red

Mutton and chevon Light to dark red
Pork Greyish pink
Poultry Grey white to dull red
Meat Color
❑ Generally the colour of living muscle is bright red.
❑ After exsanguinations of the animal, the oxygen is used up and the

muscles become dark purplish red in colour.
❑ Myoglobin constitutes about 80-90% of the total meat pigments.
❑ Hemoglobin, catalase and cytochrome also play a small role in meat

color; however, myoglobin is the major contributor and determinant
◼ The exposed surface of freshly cut meat is dark red in appearance
which is converted into bright red upon exposure to the atmosphere
form oxymyoglobin within 30-45 minutes, a process often referred to as
Bloom.
Meat Color
❑ Oxymyoglobin has a bright red colour (bloom) which is very much
desired by the consumers.
❑ The freshly cut meat sometimes may appear pale when the muscle is
subjected to severe denaturation.
❑ In conditions of less oxygen, partial vacuum or semipermeable
package, myoglobin as well as oxymyoglobin’s heme iron are oxidized
to brown coloured metmyoglobin.
❑ In order to prevent the formation of brown colour, fresh meat is
often packed in films with very good gas (oxygen) transmission rate.
Meat
Quality
Parameters-
Color
Meat Color
❑
Water Holding Capacity
❑ Water constitutes about 76% of fresh meat
❑ The capacity of meat to retain its water during the application of

physical forces in known as water holding capacity (WHC).
❑ This property of meat has a special significance because it contributes
to the juiciness of cooked meat besides influencing the texture and
colour.
❑ Fresh meat with a good water holding capacity is less prone to
shrinkage during storage.
❑ WHC of meat is very important in processing where meat is subjected
to physical forces such as cutting, grinding, filling, pressing, heating etc.
Water Holding Capacity
❑ During the conversion of muscle to meat, the changes in WHC of meat depend
upon the rate and extent of the pH decline and the extent of protein denaturation.
❑ As the pH approaches the isoelectric point (near 5.1 to 5.2) of the muscle protein,
the reactive groups available for water binding on the protein are reduced.
❑ The change is related to the ionization states of histidine and, to lesser extent,
glutamic acid.
❑ At pH 5.0, the net charge of the myosin and actomyosin molecules are at a
minimum so that WHC is at its lowest which corresponds to its isoelectric point.
❑ In a pH range of 5.0-6.5, the area of practical interest in meat, any
alteration of pH has a great influence on the WHC.
❑ The changes in WHC in the pH range of 5.0-6.5 are completely reversible,
whereas at a pH above 10 or below 4.5 irreversible changes occur .
Water Holding
Capacity
The relationship
between muscle pH
and water-holding
capacity
Marbling
❑ It refers to the intramuscular fat which can be visibly detected when
the muscle surface is cut.
❑ The lipids present in muscle tissue (subcutaneous fat, intramuscular fat,
intermuscular fat, intramyocellular lipid, and structural phospholipids)
at slaughter serve as a source of many of these flavor constituents
❑ The solidification of this fat during chilling contributes to the firmness
of meat.
❑ During handling of chilled meat, some special retail cuts like chops and
steaks retain their uniform thickness and typical shape due to marbling.
Marbling
❑ Besides, marbling also enables meat to bear the impact of
comparatively high cooking temperature.
❑ During thermal processing, moderately marbled meat yields a juicy
and flavourful product whereas too little marbling yields a dry and
flavourless product.
❑ Excess marbling neither enhances the eating satisfaction nor
desired in a fat conscious society.
Quantum of connective Tissue
❑ The amount of connective tissue in meat has a direct bearing on its
textural characteristics. During animals life time, more active muscles
tend to deposit more connective tissue to gain strength.
❑ The quantum of connective tissue per unit muscle does not increase
with age and is not responsible for tough meat of older animals. In
fact, it is the increase in muscle fibre diameter and consequent increase
in muscle fibre bundles which account for the coarse texture of such
meat.
❑ Most meat cutting practices are based on separation of coarse textured
meat from the tender meat, so as to facilitate the right kind of cooking
procedure and derive maximum palatability pleasure.
Firmness
❑ The firmness of meat is a good quality parameter which plays an
important role in carcass setting, fabrication, aging, processing,
slicing and product display. During carcass chilling, the firmness
increases due to loss of extensibliity associated with the
completion of rigor mortis.
❑ Fresh meat having a high water holding capacity shows good
firmness ad tight structure. It can be objectively measured by shear
force apparatus or penetrometer. Meat with a good degree of
firmness yields a comparatively better quality processed meat
products.
◼ Firmness
◼ The firmness of muscles changes with the progress of the postmortem period.
◼ The living muscles are relatively firm because they usually attached at both ends to
the skeleton either directly or indirectly.
◼ With the progress of the rigor process, they tend to be more and more stiff and
firm due to formation of permanent actomyosin complexes.
◼ Again after resolution of rigor, enzymatic degradation and protein denaturation
give the muscles less firm consistency.
◼ But the extremely severe protein denaturation makes the muscle very soft..
Important Meat Quality Parameters
◼ pH of Meat
◼ After death, muscle pH comes down from normal physiological pH of around 7.2
to 5.5 - 5.6 and this is mainly due to the conversion of muscle glycogen to lactic
acid and its accumulation in the muscle
◼ This happens due to lack of oxygen in the muscle tissues after exsanguinations
leading to the muscle gradually acidifications
◼ Anormal pH decline pattern is characterized by a gradual decrease from
approximately 7.2 in living muscles to a p Hof about 5.6 to 5.7 within 6 to 8 hours
after slaughter and then to an ultimate pH of around 5.4 to 5.6 within 24 hours
after slaughter.
◼ This generally occurs in healthy, well-fed, rested animals.
◼ Texture of Meat
◼ Texture is a function of the size of the bundles of muscle fibres which are
covered and separated from each other by perimysium.
◼ Coarse grained muscles have large bundles and fine grained muscles have small
bundles.
◼ There is no direct correlation between coarseness of grain and toughness after
cooking.
◼ However, an indirect correlation between muscle fibre diameter and tenderness
exists which explain the complexity of texture and tenderness as attributes of
eating quality.
◼ Tenderness to meat
◼ The overall impression of tenderness to the palate includes texture and involves
three aspects such as-(i)the initial ease of penetration of meat by the teeth, (ii)the
ease with which meat breaks into fragments, and (iii)the amount of residue
remaining after chewing.
◼ Major components of meat that contribute to tenderness are: (i)connective
tissue,(ii)muscle fibre structure and (iii)adipose tissue.
◼ Factors affecting the tenderness of Meat are both pre-slaughter and Post-slaughter
factors
Palatability Characters of Meat
❑ Three major palatability attributes are :
Juiciness
Flavour
Tenderness
❑ Juiciness:
Difference in juiciness in meat may be attributed to amount of
bound/Intermediate Moisture & intramuscular fat concentration.
Major factors responsible for Juiciness are Water holding capacity and
Intra muscular lipid
❑ Meat flavor
Associated with 2 factors; the Water soluble Myofibrillar proteins and
associated typical meat flavor (Metallic serumy).
POST- SLAUGHTER FACTORS AFFECTING
MEAT QUALITY
Temperature
➢ Temperature at which freshly slaughtered animal carcasses are stored may
bring about distinct changes in rate of chemical reactions occurring in muscle
tissue.
➢ It is desirable to reduce muscle temperature after death as quickly as possible,
to minimize protein denaturation and to inhibit growth of microorganisms.
➢ Two conditions, known as thaw rigor and cold shortening have been recognized
resulting from low temperatures in muscles before onset of rigor mortis.
❖ Thaw rigor is a severe type of rigor mortis that develops when muscle that
was frozen pre-rigor is thawed.
❖ Cold shortening develops when muscle is chilled below 15°C-16°C before
onset of rigor mortis.
Temperature
➢ Contraction is caused by sudden release of Ca²+ into the sarcoplasm and
may cause a physical shortening of 80% of original length, accompanied
by release of large quantities of meat juices and severe toughening.
➢ Severe shortening and early onset of rigor mortis may be induced by
maintaining muscle at relatively high temperature (up to 50°C), thus Heat
Rigor is produced, which is a result of a rapid depletion of ATP stores.
➢ Consequently, there appears to be an optimum temperature at which
muscle should be held during the onset of rigor mortis to minimize
shortening, toughening and other undesirable effects of the rigor
process
Electrical Stimulation
✓ The use of electrical pulses to use up energy reserves in meat is called
electrical stimulation.
✓ Electrically stimulated beef carcasses accelerate post-mortem pH decline
and longer sarcomeres that result in more tender meat.
✓ Electrically stimulated carcasses also have brighter cherry red color at
shorter chilling times post-mortem and higher amounts of marbling.
✓ Also, Reduces the incidence of Cold Shortening
Chilling Rate
✓ Muscle is very tender at the time of slaughter.
✓ Immediately after slaughter, many changes take place in muscle that
convert muscle to meat. One of the changes is the contraction and
stiffening of muscle known as rigor mortis.
✓ Rapid chilling leads to cold shortening and and subsequent toughness
and if frozen before completion of rigor leads to Thaw
rigor/shortening on thawing which will affect the tenderness.
Freezing
✓ Freezing rate plays a small role in tenderness.
✓ When meat is frozen very quickly, small ice crystals form; when
meat is frozen slowly, large ice crystals are formed.
✓ While the formation of large crystals may serve to disrupt
components of the muscle fibers in meat and thereby increase
tenderness very slightly, the large ice crystals result in an increased
loss of juices upon thawing.
✓ This in crease in loss of juices results in meat that is less juicy upon
cooking and therefore usually is perceived as being less tender.
Chemical
✓ Salt curing and usage of vegetable enzymes like papain, bromelin,
ficin degrade connective tissue like collagen & elastin to yield
tender meat.
Marinating
✓ Basic Ingredients of a Maranade
Salt/soy sauce
Acid (vinegar/Lemon/Italian salad dressing
Enzymes (papain /Bromelin/Ficin/Fresh ginger/garlic
Alcohol (wine/Brandy)
Olive oil
✓ Tenderizing action occurs through softening of collage by salt, increased uptake
of water and hydrolysis of crosslinks by acids & Alcohols
✓ Earthen ware mostly preferred due to acids used in margination
✓ Marination employs Freezing (4-hr)
Marination results in sustainable losses of Fe, Zn & Mg.

Suspension of carcass
✓ Stretching of muscle during chilling of the carcass affects
tenderness.
✓ It has different effects on different muscles acceding to their
anatomical location in the carcass.
➢ Usually carcasses are hung from hind leg in which major
muscle in rib/lion is stretched & more tender than cuts from
round.
➢ But this has been replaced by hanging from pelvic/hip
bones
Thawing
✓ Thawing meat slowly in the refrigerator generally results in greater

tenderness compared with cooking frozen meat without thawing.
✓ Slow thawing minimizes the toughening effect from cold
shortening (when present) and reduces the amount of moisture
loss.
Cooking
✓ As cooking progresses, the contractile proteins in meat become less
tender, and the major connective tissue protein (collagen) becomes
more tender.
✓ Thus, for cuts that are low in connective tissue–such as steaks and
chops from the rib and loin–the recommended method of cooking
is dry heat, including pan frying, broiling, roasting, or barbecuing.
✓ Dry heat raises the temperature very quickly and the flavour of meat
will develop before the contractile proteins have the opportunity to
become significantly less tender.
Aging
✓ In the absence of microbial spoilage, the holding of unprocessed
meat above freezing point is known as ageing.
✓ Progressive Tenderization due to natural enzymatic changes after
Rigor mortis due to enzymes like cathepsins.
✓ It is also frequently referred as conditioning and sometimes
ripening.
✓ During this period of holding at 0 to 30C i.e. above freezing point
several changes occur in meat at a subtle rate.
✓ Increase in tenderness is relatively rapid during first 3 to 7 days
postmortem and tenderization rate diminishes after that.
Carving
➢ Meat should be carved at right angles to the length of muscle fibre for
maximum tenderness.
➢ When cuts are made from carcasses and wholesale cuts, the normal
procedure is to cut at right angles to the length of the muscle.
➢ This procedure severs the maximum amount of connective tissue and
distributes the bone more evenly among all cuts in that area.
➢ Likewise, consumers should carve cooked meat at right angles to the
length of the muscle fibers or “against the grain” to achieve maximum
tenderness.
➢ Cutting with the grain results in “stringiness” and thus less tenderness.
Ingress of Contaminants
➢ Contamination during slaughter and subsequent handling of meat
determines the wholesomeness of meat to a greater extent.
➢ Stunning instruments, knives, scalding tank (in case of pig and poultry)
are major sources of contamination of dressed carcasses, if proper
cares are not taken during their use.
➢ The level of contamination depends on local conditions, the
throughput of the deboning room, the temperature, the period of
time meat is present in the room and the cleanliness of the cutting
tables, conveyor belts, knives and other equipment.
➢ To check the microbial growth and aerial contamination, temperature
of meat cutting room must be maintained at 12°C or below.
Meat tenderization science
◼ Tenderness of meat is influenced by the breed, age,
condition of nutrition and amount of muscular exercise of
the animal.
◼ It mainly depends on the amount of connective tissue
present between muscle fibres and to a lesser extent, on the
thickness of muscle fibres themselves.
◼ There are several methods by which tough meat obtained
from different animals especially aged domestic animals can
be converted into reasonably tender meat.
◼ Categories of meat tenderness (1) actomyosin effect, (2)
background effect, and (3) bulk density or lubrication effect.
1) Actomyosin effect (sarcomere length).
❑ This concerns aspects of meat tenderness associated with
the condition of muscle fiber sarcomeres.
❑ Sarcomeres, in turn, are composed of the proteins actin and
myosin.
❑ During contraction (performance of work or in rigor
mortis), these proteins combine to form actomyosin.
1) Actomyosin effect (sarcomere length).
❑ Sarcomere length is influenced by muscle position during
rigor mortis (stretching lengthens sarcomeres) and the
temperature at which rigor mortis occurs (cold pre-rigor
muscle temperature shortens sarcomeres).
❑ Also the sarcomeres easily fragment aided by muscle fiber
proteolytic degradation that may occur during certain
conditions that contribute to proteolysis such as warm storage
temperatures or extended periods of time under refrigeration
(e.g., postmortem aging)
2) Background effect (connective tissue).
◼ This pertains to the amount of connective tissue distributed
through the muscle.
◼ The salient characteristic of this connective tissue is that it
retains its strength regardless of aging time.
◼ Therefore, even under conditions when the actomyosin effect is
minimal, this connective tissue results in a background of
toughness.
3) Bulk density or lubrication effect.
◼ Fat dilutes the protein in meat lowering its bulk density and
increasing tenderness.
◼ Also indicated that fat provides lubrication between muscle
fibers, thereby possibly increasing the perception of tenderness
◼ Since increased cooking time or temperature increases
toughness, marbling has been proposed to provide a hedge
against overcooking
◼ Conditioning of Meat
◼ Conditioning is the natural process of tenderization when meat is stored or
aged post-rigor.
◼ When meat is stored above freezing point at temperatures between 0°C to
3°C, all the changes that usually occur at higher temperatures take place but at
a reduced rate.
◼ The proteolytic enzymes of muscle fibres bring about a desirable change i.e.,
conditioning or ripening, which is manifested by a marked increase in flavour,
juiciness and tenderness of the meat.
◼ The action of enzymes is almost completely inhibited when the meat is stored
at temperature below freezing.
◼ During conditioning improvement in tenderness is due to changes in
(i) The myofibrils and
(ii) The surrounding connective tissue (consisting of collagen and ground substance,
proteoglycan).
◼ These changes are brought about by multicatalytic proteinase complex, calcium
activated proteases, the calpains and the lysosomal cysteine proteases, the
cathepsins.
◼ Procedure recommended for the commercial conditioning of beef:
(i) The dressed carcass should be chilled at -0.5 to 3°C for 1-2 days and then made
into quarters.
(ii) The sides or quarters should be held at 2 to 3°C for 10- 12 days.
(iii) Before cutting up or removal for retail sale, the quarters should be held at
ordinary room temperature.
(iv) If the room temperature is too high they should be held at 4.5 to 7°C for 24
hours.
◼ In commercial practice, conditioning of meat is limited to 2-6 weeks and when beef
is cut into small joints the greatest increase in palatability is ensured by a storage
period of about 9 days.
Meat
tenderization
science
Shi, H., Shahidi, F., Wang, J., Huang, Y., Zou, Y., Xu, W., & Wang,
D. (2021). Techniques for postmortem tenderisation in meat
processing: effectiveness, application and possible mechanisms.
Food Production, Processing and Nutrition, 3(1), 21.
doi:10.1186/s43014-021-00062-0
◼ Tenders Stretch Method
◼ Stretching of muscles produces a tenderizing effect; shortening produces the
opposite effect that is toughening of meat.
◼ Traditionally, beef sides or whole carcasses are hanged by means of a hook,
inserted behind the Achilles tendon during conditioning
◼ The weight of the carcass put many muscles into tension so stretching them as they
pass into rigor. This stretching helps to increase sarcomere length and there by to
produce more tender meat
◼ In this posture muscles of hind limbs assume a relaxed position. The process is
called pelvic suspension or hip free suspension.
◼ The hot beef sides or quarters must be suspended by the aitch bone within one and
half hour of slaughter
Meat tenderization
◼ Tender Cut Process
◼ In this process, tension on individual muscles
in a suspended carcass - is reduced by
selectively severing the bones and ligaments.
◼ The carcasses are suspended normally from
the Achilles tendon and thus it is easy to
implement on commercial slaughter lines.
◼ When the process is carried out within 45
minutes of slaughter, a significant
improvement in tenderness has been noticed
both in cattle and pig carcass meats.
Meat tenderization
◼ Electrical Stimulation
◼ Electrical stimulation of carcass following slaughter is the new commercial method
of meat tenderization.
◼ Here, pulses of electricity are passed through the carcass immediately after
slaughter and the current causing the muscles to contract and thereby use up
glycogen, ATP and creatine phosphate.
◼ It is done before rigor or in-pre-rigor carcass.
◼ The electrical stimulation of pre-rigor muscle causes the carcass to undergo a rapid
series of muscle contractions and relaxations.
Meat tenderization
◼ Electrical Stimulation
◼ The rapid series of contractions and relaxations of muscle accelerates the rigor
process.
◼ Electrical stimulation can be performed at any stage but better to be given within 30
minutes of bleeding; otherwise the muscles will lose their capacity to react to the
electrical stimulation.
◼ Mechanical Tenderization
◼ Mechanical methods such as needle or blade tenderization, steak maceration,
tumbling, massaging, grinding, cubing etc. are effective methods for improving
tenderness..
◼ Grinding is a very popular means of increasing tenderness of meat, especially beef.
◼ Ground meat is more popular than steaks and roasts due to its uniform texture and
tenderness.
◼ Tenderization by Enzymes
◼ Several attempts have been made to make the tough meat tender by use of several
proteolytic enzymes obtained from plants, bacteria and fungi.
◼ Enzymes which have been used for tenderizing meat include papain, a proteolytic
enzyme from papaya fruit (Curica papaya); ficin, a protease derived from figs;
bromelin, a proteolytic enzyme of pine apple besides bacterial and fungal enzymes
such as protease 15, rhozyme, fungal amylase, hydralase D, etc.
◼ Bacterial and fungal proteolytic enzymes act only on the proteins of muscle fibre
causing digestion of sarcolemma, disappearance of nuclei, degradation of muscle
fibre and eventually loss of cross-striations.
◼ Proteolytic enzymes of plant origin act preferentially against connective tissue
proteins.
◼ Tenderization by Enzymes
◼ Main features of these enzymes are to break down the heat denatured connective
tissue proteins to soluble, hydroxyproline containing molecules.
◼ Methods of application of proteolytic enzymes:
a) Dipping of meat in enzyme solution.
b) Introduction of enzyme solution into the meat pieces through fork holes
before cooking.
c) Pumping the major blood vessels of meat cuts post-mortem with enzyme
containing solution.
d) Rehydrating freeze dried steaks in a solution containing proteolytic enzymes.
e) Pre-slaughter injection(10- 15 minutes before slaughter) of solution (0.5 mg/lb
live weight; 5- 10 percent solution) containing enzymes.
◼ Tenderization by Marination
◼ Tenderness of meat and add taste variety to the meat components of meals by a
process of marination.
◼ The basic ingredients of a marinate includes salt, acid (vinegar, lemon or soy sauce)
and enzymes(papain, bromelin and ginger extract).
◼ Addition of a little amount of oil seals the surfaces of meat from air and results in
fresher and brighter appearance of meat for a longer period of time.
◼ Marination tenderizes the meat through the softening of collagen by the salt and
hydrolysis and breakage of the cross-links of the connective tissue by the acids and
alcohols.
◼ Then the meat is mixed with the marinating ingredients and kept in refrigerator for
a minimum of 4-8 hours for complete marination.
◼ Miscellaneous Tenderizing Agents
◼ Tenderization by Ginger Extract: Ginger is widely used in household and
restaurants for preparation of various culinary dishes because of its spicy flavour
imparting properties. Proteolytic enzyme isolated from ginger rhizome is known as
Zingibain.
◼ Tenderization of Cucumis Trigonus: Cucumis plant is a wild plant and used
traditionally during cooking of meat to improve taste and good proteolytic activity.
◼ The crude extract of dried Cucumis fruit has tenderness and overall palatability of
meat.
Postmortem Changes of Meat Carcasses
◼ Slaughter of food animal is followed by a series of physical and
chemical changes over a period of several hours or even days resulting
in the conversion of muscle to meat.
◼ When a animal dies, the biochemical changes responsible for anabolism
stop.
◼ As a consequence of this process, catabolism starts bringing spoilage to
flesh.
◼ The digestive enzymes still being active instead of acting on the food
present inside the gut begin to digest tissue components of the body
such as lipids, carbohydrates and proteins.
◼ This process is called “autolysis”
◼ In conversion of muscle to meat both physical and chemical changes
occur.
◼ General people think that the flesh of a living animal is converted into
meat immediately after the slaughter of the animal
◼ After the slaughter of a meat animal, circulatory system, nervous system
and hormonal control etc. gradually stop to function and muscles of the
dead animal traverse through a series of biochemical and physical
changes over a period of time.
◼ These altogether lead to production of meat and the process is called as
conversion of muscle to meat.
◼ As muscle is converted to meat, many changes occur, including:-
(1) a gradual depletion of available energy;
(2) a shift from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism favoring the

production of lactic acid, resulting in the pH of the tissue declining
from near neutrality to 5.4 – 5.8;
(3) a rise in ionic strength, in part, because of the inability of ATP –
dependent calcium, sodium, and potassium pumps to function;
(4) an increasing inability of the cell to maintain reducing conditions.
◼ The important changes that take place during postmortem period are as
follows:
➢ Exsanguination
➢ Loss of Homeostasis
➢ Postmortem pH decline
➢ Rigor Mortis
➢ Resolution of Rigor
➢ Conditioning of Meat
➢ Loss of Structural Integrity
➢ Loss of Protection from Bacterial Invasion

Stage 1: Exsanguination
◼ In conventional slaughter of animal, exsanguinations is the first step where blood
is removed from the animal. It marks the beginning of a series of postmortem
changes in the muscle.
◼ Sheep and goat bleed better in vertical position whereas cattle bleed better in
horizontal position.
◼ As the blood pressure begins to drop following exsanguinations, the circulatory
system starts to adjust its functions to maintain a blood supply to vital organs.
◼ Generally, 50 per cent of total blood volume is removed from the body of the
animal and remaining 50 per cent is retained in the vital organs.
◼ So, we must take care of sufficient bleeding of the slaughtered animal
Stage 2: Loss of Homeostasis
◼ Following exsanguinations, all homeostatic mechanisms are eventually lost.
❑ Within 4-6 minutes after exsanguinations, nervous control from central
nervous system is lost.
❑ Body temperature.
❑ Blood supply loss: oxygen and nutrient levels decline
◼ Muscle remains functional and metabolically active for several days after slaughter
◼ Residual oxygen in the muscle depends on the concentrations of hemoglobin and
myoglobin at the time blood ceases to circulate.
◼ Oxidation of the heme iron from a ferrous (Fe2+) to a ferric (Fe3+) state gives
rise to the brown color and is often associated with the release of oxygen radicals
Stage 3: Postmortem pH decline
◼ As the animal dies and the heartbeat stops, blood flow arrests and muscle
oxygenation declines, the biochemical changes responsible for anabolism
stop.
◼ Then there will be a shifting of metabolic process from aerobic pathway
to anaerobic pathway for the production of energy in the form of ATP.
◼ Under anaerobic conditions, pyruvate is converted into lactate in muscle
tissues which, having nowhere to go, builds up, acidifying the muscle
◼ The lactic acid is produced gets accumulated in the muscles
◼ The normal pH decline for each species can be generally characterized by

a gradual decline in pH.
Stage 3: Postmortem pH decline
◼ Once glycogen stores are used up and metabolic enzymes become inactive, lactic
acid concentration increases and muscle pH drops
◼ This lactic acid production continues until the muscle attains the ultimate pH of
about 5.4 to 5.5 i.e.., the isoelectric point of the meat proteins.
◼ Achieving ultimate pH indicates the cessation of glycolysis and production of ATP
and the onset of rigor mortis
◼ The accumulation of lactic acid in muscle adversely affects the meat quality as it
leads to the denaturation of muscle protein.
◼ The extent of protein denaturation is influenced by temperature and the level of
pH attained.
Stage 4: Rigor Mortis
◼ Muscles become energy less allowing the onset of rigor
◼ The muscles become inextensible or contracted and joints become stiffened after
death and this condition is called as 'rigor mortis’.
◼ This stiffening results from the permanent cross bridges between actin and
myosin filaments in the muscle.
◼ Again these cross bridges are result of accumulation of lactic acid in the muscle,
decline in muscle pH and coagulation of muscle protein.
◼ All the muscles do not enter into rigor simultaneously but most active muscle enters
first.
◼ The rigor mortis commences from palpebral muscles of eyelids, muscles of hearts, head, neck,
shoulder, loin and hind limbs and passes off in the same direction.
Stage 5: Resolution of Rigor
◼ After a period of completion of rigor mortis, rigors 'passes off' i.e., the muscles
do not remain stiff in definitely.
◼ The muscles again soften during this progressive 'resolution’ of rigor.
◼ This 'resolution' of rigor occurs due to physical changes in muscle structure.
◼ Z-line structure of the muscle fibre becomes disintegrated.
◼ The degradation of muscles structure can be estimated from the myofibrillar
fragmentation index (MFI).
◼ After Conversion of Muscle death of the animal, MFI increases with
advancement of ageing time and the meat to Meat becomes more tender on
cooking.
Stage 6: Conditioning of Meat
◼ Calcium-dependent and calcium-independent proteases cleave myofibrils at the
Z-disk
◼ Conditioning of meat is also known as ripening or ageing of meat.
◼ Two types of changes are seen in conditioning-
(i) weakening of the myofibrils and
(ii) structural changes in intramuscular connective tissue.
◼ The main causative factor for conditioning is the myofibrillar change which is
associated with breakdown of attachments of the thin (actin) filaments to Z-
discs.
◼ Neither actomyosin complex dissociates nor the muscle becomes extensible
during conditioning.
Stage 6: Conditioning of Meat
◼ There is a very small change in the connective tissue component like collagen
where some cleavages of cross-links are seen.
◼ There are two main sorts of proteolytic enzymes-calpains and cathepsins which
are responsible for tenderization.
◼ Cathepsins occur in the lysosomes and generally act at acidic Ph
◼ Calpains are located in the region of Z-lines and activated by calcium ions, higher
pH, and temperature and reduced calpastatin activity.
Stage 7: Loss of Structural Integrity
◼ Resolution of rigor mortis results in disintegration of Z-line structure and
conditioning leads to breakdown of myofibrillar structure and denaturation of
collagenous connective tissue.
◼ Muscle structure is altered by proteolysis and ion homeostasis dysregulation
◼ Thereby the membrane properties are altered and the microscopic muscle
structure does not remain same after all these postmortem events as they were in
the living muscle.
Stage 8: Loss of Protection from Bacterial Invasion
◼ Due to altered membrane properties muscles become susceptible to invasion of
microorganisms.
◼ We know that the lymphatic system and white blood cells of
◼ Circulatory system prevent the spread of microorganisms.
◼ After exsanguinations of the animal, these two systems do not work and
microorganisms can spread throughout the muscles very easily.
◼ Most of the postmortem changes favour the growth of the microorganisms
except the lowered pH of the muscle which inhibits the microbial proliferation.
Stage 9: Degradation due to Proteolytic Enzymes
◼ Several autolytic lysosomal enzymes called cathepsins which remain

inactive in a living muscle tissue, are activated as the muscle pH
declines.
◼ These enzymes initiate the degradation of muscle protein structure.
◼ In fact, catheptic enzymes are capable of breaking down even
collagenous connective tissue of the muscle and cause tenderization of
meat during aging.
Physico-chemical Changes
◼ Postmortem glycolysis is one of the most important factors
determining the quality of meat.
◼ Fundamental to development of postmortem tenderization
management schemes is an understanding of the processes that
occur during the conversion of physiological tissues to food.
◼ In conversion of muscle to meat both physical and chemical
changes occur.
◼ Although these alterations are interrelated, they are discussed
independently.
Physico-chemical Changes
◼ Chemical and physical changes in muscle during development of rigor mortis.

Physical Changes: Rigor Mortis
◼ The onset of rigor mortis is correlated with the disappearance of ATP
(Adenosine triphosphate) from the muscle.
◼ The biochemical events creating rigor are the following:
(1) Mitochondrial respiration stops in conjunction with the depletion of
oxymyoglobin as cells transition from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism;
(2) As glycolysis becomes the engine for energy production supplanting the citric
acid cycle and the muscle ceases to function, temperature and pH decline;
(3) Sources of energy decline, first creatine phosphate and then ATP;
(4) As pH drops, there is an increase in free Ca2+ in sarcoplasm;
(5) formation of crosslinks between myosin heads and actin results in actomyosin;
(6) The muscle becomes stiff and loses elasticity
◼ In the absence of ATP, actin and myosin combine to form rigid chains of
actomyosin in postmortem muscle which is irreversible in nature
◼ Calcium is released across the sarcoplasmic reticulum and there is an
accumulation of irreversible rigor bonds in sarcomeres of muscle fibers
◼ As muscle progresses through the onset of rigor, more actomyosin cross-
bridges will be formed, the sarcomere will shorten, and there will be a
noticeable loss in extensibility of muscles.
◼ As long as resting ATP levels can remain constant, the muscle will stay in
the delay phase, with few noticeable changes.
◼ When animal die if relaxed, creatine phosphate is degraded before the use
of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
◼ The ATP content begins to decrease when creatine phosphate reaches
about the same concentration as ATP.
◼ Physical changes in
postmortem muscle are
characterized by three stages
or phases of rigor mortis
manifested in skeletal
muscle.
◼ These three stages or phases
are termed delay, onset, and
completion of rigor mortis
◼ In the first stage of rigor mortis, termed the delay phase of rigor mortis,
postmortem muscle is in a soft, pliable, elastic, and extensible condition.
◼ This condition is referred to as prerigor.
◼ Pre-rigor muscle metabolism is influenced by:
1) the feeding regime of the animal prior to slaughter in terms of its
impact on muscle glycogen levels
2) the level of the animal’s stress immediately before slaughter in terms
of its impact on muscle metabolism
3) muscle fiber type;
4) post-slaughter electrical stimulation and
5) the animal’s genetics

◼ ATP (complexed with Mg2+) levels are reasonably constant as the high-
energy phosphate from creatine phosphate is expended.
◼ The second phase of rigor mortis:
◼ Rigor occurs when crossbridge cycling between myosin and actin stops,
and permanent myosin and actin linkages are formed
◼ The onset phase, involving a brief time of accelerated physical changes
similar to those noticed in the first phase and proceeding to the point of
the muscle being inelastic and inextensible.
◼ This is termed “in rigor.” Measurable ATP depletion, lactate production,
and sarcomere shortening occur during this phase
◼ The third and final phase of rigor mortis (completion) occurs when
postmortem muscle ATP levels are depleted and the actomyosin cross-
bridges are thus irreversible.
◼ Although meat is normally used for processing after it has gone into full
rigor, prerigor muscle has some distinct advantages over postrigor meat.
◼ Among these advantages are:
(1) a higher water binding capacity,
(2) a greater ability to emulsify fat,
(3) formation of a more stable emulsion,
(4) a more stable red color,
(5) a lower susceptibility to oxidation.
(6) offers some economic advantages, including more rapid inventory

turnover and greater energy savings
Chemical Changes in Postmortem Muscle
◼ As a consequence of this process, catabolism starts bringing spoilage to
fish flesh.
◼ The digestive enzymes still being active instead of acting on the food
present inside the gut begin to digest tissue components of the fish
body such as lipids, carbohydrates and proteins.
◼ This process is called “autolysis”
◼ Pyruvic acid is oxidized to C0₂ and H₂0 by way of acetyl-CoA entering
the citric acid cycle and its associated phosphorylation .
◼ This is an aerobic reaction and so ceases soon after death when the
residual oxygen becomes depleted.
◼ Thus, glycogen reserves and the high-energy phosphate compounds are
utilized in an attempt to maintain normal muscle cell processes
◼ Therefore, these compounds are discussed from the standpoint of their
levels in muscle at the time of death and the consequences of their
breakdown following death.
◼ Any muscle entering rigor in the contracted state can result in tough
meat for beef or for lamb
◼ The muscle contraction resulting from subjecting muscle to high
temperature pre-rigor is called heat shortening or rigor shortening.
◼ Exposure of pre-rigor muscle to temperatures near freezing point or
rapid chilling of fresh meat causes muscle contraction known as cold
shortening.
◼ Because muscle contraction is ATP dependent, only pre-rigor muscles can cold shorten.
◼ Cold shortening is most rapid during the first 2 h postmortem.
◼ Thereafter, shortening occurs at progressively slower rate but
continues until onset of rigor.
◼ Cold shortening is similar to normal muscle contraction but with a
slower rate.
◼ Cold shortening apparently results from diminished functioning at
low temperatures of the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium pump
Values for pH and Chemical Constituents in Beef Muscle at Various Times Postmortem
Chemical Changes: Glycogen Levels
◼ Glycogen normally comprises about 1% of the muscle weight
◼ After death the variability of glycogen depends on glycogen levels at the
time of or soon after death, among which are breed, stresses of various
types and durations, the initial concentration of glycogen in the tissues,
and differences in the rate of glycolysis for different muscles
◼ Extremely rapid breakdown of glycogen within 3-5 hours after death
leads to development of pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) muscle in the pig
Chemical Changes: ATP, ADP, and CP
◼ ATP, ADP, and CP concentrations in muscle from various species

◼ Rigor does not occur until approximately one-half of the ATP is
depleted.
◼ It is evident that CP levels fall rapidly beginning immediately after death.
ATP concentrations, as reflected by acid-labile phosphorus levels,
remain relatively constant until CP reaches quite low levels.
◼ When CP declines to quite low concentrations (from about 6 to about 1
μmol/g), ATP levels begin to drop rapidly.
Chemical Changes: ATP, ADP, and CP
◼ The interesting point is that as ATP concentrations decline by about
one-half, muscle extensibility begins to decrease rapidly and the muscle
becomes highly inextensible within a short period of time
◼ The decline in pH is relatively constant until the ATP levels become
fairly low.
◼ At this point the muscle is quite inextensible and is locked into full rigor.
Chemical Changes: Lactic Acid
◼ Virtually all living cells are capable of partially oxidizing glucose under
anaerobic conditions.
◼ This results in a net yield of two molecules of ATP for each glucose
molecule that is converted to lactic acid:
◼ Glucose + 2 ADP + 2 Pi 2 lactate + 2 ATP + 2 H2O
◼ Lactate increases rapidly following death in a stoichiometric

relationship to glycogen, the high-energy phosphate compounds, and
their metabolites
Chemical Changes: pH Changes
◼ Slaughtering and/or of excising muscle samples causes a marked drop
in the pH of muscle
◼ Some variation in the pH of different muscles from the same animal
due to exhaustion, other conditions causing stress, which accelerate
glycolysis and greatly speed up the pH drop
Chemical Changes: pH Changes
◼ The third and final phase of rigor mortis (completion) occurs when
postmortem muscle ATP levels are depleted and the actomyosin cross-
bridges are thus irreversible.
◼ Generally, there is some rigor shortening at this point, and this is when
meat is the least tender.
◼ Over time, meat does become more tender with postmortem aging.
◼ This is due in part to some resolution of rigor (and release of some
actomyosin cross-bridges) but mostly due to protein degradation
Cold Shortening
❑ Cold shortening occurs when the muscle is chilled to less than 14°C before the
completion of rigor mortis which results in dramatic decrease in the tenderness of
the muscle.
❑ All three of the following conditions must exist for muscle to undergo cold
shortening:
(1) it must be in the immediate prerigor state;
(2) it must be held in a cold environment (< 10°C); and
(3) an adequate ATP concentration must be present to prevent locking of the actin
and myosin filaments into actomyosin so that contraction can occur
❑ This shortening or contraction is more at 00C and still more at -20C.
❑ The shortening occurs before there is any reduction in muscle ATP levels.
❑ Actin and myosin filaments of the muscle fibers slide and lock together to form
high density of actomyosin .
Cold Shortening
◼ Cold shortening is believed to be due to a gradual rise in the cytosolic calcium level
by release from either mitochondria or the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
◼ Low temperature stimulates massive release of calcium ion from sarcoplasmic
reticulum without subsequent arrest of this ion because low temperature reduces
the efficacy of calcium pump of the sarcoplasmic reticulum
◼ The slightly elevated calcium causes a weak contractile response and the muscle
shortens.
◼ This shortening can also occur on the carcass, particularly with muscles not placed
under stretch when suspended from the rail.
❑ Otherwise also, cold shortening is a reversible phenomena and is resolved when
glycogen content of muscle is exhausted.
❑ In the meat plant, cold shortening can be avoided by keeping the meat above 140C
for sufficient time to pass the rigor stage.
Thaw Rigor
◼ Thaw rigor or thaw contracture refers to the shortening that occurs
when muscle is rapidly frozen prerigor and then subsequently thawed
◼ Thaw rigor appears to result from an extensive salt flux on thawing,
which is characterized by the release of an excessive amount of Ca2+ so
that the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) membrane becomes saturated and
Ca2+ spills over into the intracellular space, causing massive contraction
◼ Then on thawing muscle shortens severely (up to 60 per cent)).
◼ There is release (loss) of large volume or quantities of drip as exudate
(30 per cent of muscle weight) and this causes less tenderness.
◼ The onset of thaw rigor occurs when the concentration of ATP is
relatively high, about 40%
Thaw Rigor
◼ Although shortening is less in a muscle attached to skeleton, the
condition results in a tough meat and heavy drip losses.
❑ Aging a carcass affected by cold shortening or thaw rigor will not
alleviate the detrimental effects on tenderness caused by these two
conditions.
❑ To ensure more tender meat, home slaughtered animals and wild game
should be protected from very rapid cooling during the first 6-12 hours
after death.
◼ Thaw rigor can be avoided if the time and temperature of frozen storage
are such as to allow the ATP levels to fall before thawing.
Pale, Soft and Exudative Meat: Rapid pH Decline
◼ This a postmortem phenomenon in which the muscle becomes pale in
color, develops a soft texture, and exudes large amounts of liquid
◼ PSE can be caused by inherited condition known as Porcine Stress
Syndrome (PSS) or promoted by external stress factors
◼ The stress factors result lead an extremely rapid rate of glycolysis
postmortem, rapid pH at a temperature of the muscle above 35°C.
◼ The rapid pH fall results in precipitation of the sarcoplasmic proteins
on the myofibrils and makes uptake of the muscle exudate difficult
◼ The postmortem metabolic rate is vastly increased, with ATP
depletion, completion of rigor mortis, and pH values as low as 5.3
occurring within 10–15 min after death.
◼ The low pH that develops while the muscle temperature is still high
leads to a denaturation of some of the muscle proteins, notably
myosin.
◼ This reduces the water-holding activity of the muscle and results in
excess drip loss
◼ Under these conditions, changes occur in the properties of the muscle
proteins and the meat becomes watery and assumes a pale, unattractive
colour, becomes soft in consistency and lacks flavour.
◼ This condition occurs in animals which are physically exhausted or
stressed someway during slaughter and have low glycogen reserve in
the muscles.
◼ The incidence of DFD pork can be
decreased by minimizing the
amount of stress during marketing
and slaughtering.
◼ Practices such as feeding, resting,
avoiding mixing of strange animals,
and other good management
procedures, which avoid stress and
maintain glycogen reserves at the
time of death, will decrease the
amount of DFD pork.
Dark, Firm and Dry Meat: High Ultimate pH
◼ Dry, firm, dark (DFD) meat or ‘dark-cutting meat’ is a meat quality
defect that is associated with beef, but it is known to also occur in pork.
◼ It is characterized by high pH values remaining stable at a relatively high
level, resulting in an ultimate pH in the range of 6.5 to 6.8
◼ In this case, the pH lowers only slightly and the ultimate pH is reached
quickly.
◼ At this pH muscles will bind water very well and will hold its
pigmentation resulting in a dark color.
◼ This is caused by low muscle glycogen and creatine phosphate levels
present at the time of slaughter (restricting lactate formation)
Dark, Fir& and Dry Meat: High Ultimate pH
◼ This results in very dark, firm and dry meat (DFD) and has a firm texture
with dry and sticky surface on touch which has poor keeping quality.
◼ The dark color is a result of the high postmortem pH that keeps the
muscle protein highly charged
◼ Such meat has excellent properties for use in processed meat products
because of its high water-binding activity
◼ DFD can be caused by a number of factors such as hunger (starvation),
exercise (exhaustion), and longterm stress in the live animal.
◼ Its incidence rates tend to be seasonal, with higher rates reported when
animals are subjected to long periods of cold and damp weather.
Differences between PSE and DFD meat
PSE (Pale, Soft and Exudative) Meat
◼ This type of meat ultimately develops a
pH of about 5.2 to 5.3 (4.5) and known as
pale, soft, exudative meat (PSE)
◼ Factors responsible for development of
PSE condition in meat include high
environmental temperature, rough ante-
mortem handling, fighting, physiological
differences between breeds and individual
muscles, inefficient slaughtering
techniques, slow chilling of carcasses
during early postmortem processing and
handling of carcasses. Postmortem pH decline pattern
Comparison of PSE and DFD
◼pH of Meat
PSE (Pale, Soft and Exudative) Meat
◼ This type of meat ultimately develops a pHof about 5.2 to 5.3 (4.5) and known as
pale, soft, exudative meat (PSE)
Comparison of PSE and DFD
◼ Characteristics of PSE and DFD meat
Acid meat
◼ Porcine stress syndrome (PSS) or Rendement Napole (RN−) mutation.
◼ Often leads to abnormally low ultimate pH meat (acid meat; pH < 5.4)
◼ The condition is characterized by high-muscle-glycogen stores and an extended pH
decline postmortem.
◼ It is characterized by a significant increase in the glycogen levels in the muscle of
the live animal and an ultimate pH that is lower than normal (i.e., 5.3–5.4 instead of
5.5)
◼ The condition is closely related to the PSE and DFD conditions
◼ The gain-in-function mutation results in an approximately 100% increase in
glycogen content and enhanced mitochondrial oxidative capacity in glycolytic
muscles
◼ The pH decline of muscle is characterized by a normal rate, but continues to drop
for a longer time.
Acid meat
◼ The lower ultimate pH results in a greater drip loss and a slightly paler color
◼ Low ultimate pH associated adversely influences meat water-holding capacity,
protein content and functionality, and processing yield.
◼ The abnormally low ultimate pH is usually attributed to the fact that these
animals deposit greater muscle glycogen
◼ The immediate solution to PSS muscle is to eliminate all stress, which is virtually
impossible through moving short distances, low temperatures, prevent fighting
◼ The condition appears to be genetic, however, and can be reduced by selection.
◼ Perhaps the fastest progress toward elimination of PSS can be made by using
anesthesia as a selection tool
Freezer Burning
◼ Freezer burning on frozen meat occurs if meat is stored unpacked under freezing
conditions.
◼ Because of the circulation of air in a freezer, ice present in the outer layers of
frozen meat sublimes to gas.
◼ Sublimation is a process where water turns from its solid state (ice) into its gas-like
state without ever being present in its liquid state (water).
◼ As a result of sublimation, the macromolecules within the outer layers of frozen
meat change their configuration and proteins are denatured during the process.
◼ Meat suffering from freezer burning exhibits on its outside layers a dry and fibrous
structure owing to severe dehydration.
Freezer Burning
◼ Changes in colour within those layers can be observed as well and the original red
colour changes into a lighter, sometimes even slight yellow–green, colour.
◼ Rancidity is also speeded up in those dry outside layers as a reduced water content
favours the development of rancidity.
◼ Freezer burning can be largely avoided if meat is frozen in a packed form.
◼ When packaged, water cannot sublime and moisture is not lost when ice turns into
gas (sublimation) owing to air circulation in the freezer.
◼ If product is packed or covered properly, the packaging material does not allow the
gas to evaporate.
◼ The packaging material should be of low water permeability and as little space as
possible should be present between meat and the packaging material owing to
possible oxidation in those areas.

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FS406: Meat, Poultry and Fish

Dr. Nichrous G. Mlalila

• Fisheries are major source of protein

Source: State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002 /

Source: State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002

Farmed organisms that do

Oily 18% 15% 0% ADB 2% 65%

Shell 15% 2.5% 0% B 2% 79%

White 17% 0% 0% B 1% 80%

❑ The favorable protein content found in seafood, especially as it is

➢Among them are fish collagen and gelatins, as well as

Dr. Nichrous G. Mlalila

Enzyme(s) Substrate Changes Encountered Prevention/Inhibition

CH3COCOOH + TMAO + H2O → CH3COOH + CO2 + TMA + H2O

❖The hydroperoxides are readily broken down, catalyzed by heavy metal

The development of free fatty acids in herring stored at different temperatures

1. All fish struggle when caught, using up their glycogen

Dr. Nichrous G. Mlalila

Use of heat (cooking, blanching, pasteurizing, sterilizing), ionizing

Conservation and storage:

❖Traditionally, simple sun drying was practiced widely. Here preservation

The gutting of fish can bring about the

➢ Make subsequent chilling more effective

Bench, ﬂoor, and hopper

Dr. Nichrous G. Mlalila

➢Biological/ Microbiological hazards: Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp.,

◼ Potentially lethaI syndrome resulting from the consumption of Clams, Mussels,

❑ Found in clams, oysters and mussels

◼ Found in Clams, Mussels, Oysters and Scallops

◼ Found in Clams, Mussels, Oysters and Scallops

❖Ciguatera may therefore tend to be more persistent in a given location, in

Food Involved Common Symptoms Prevention

Food Involved Common Symptoms Prevention

❑ Salinity Food Involved Common Symptoms Prevention

The PV is estimated by noting the amount of iodine released from

Meat and Poultry Technology

Dr. Nichrous G. Mlalila

Poultry keepers: 3.7 mil

➢ 900 mil lt (Improved breed)

➢ Per capita consumption: 47lt

◼ FAO per capita consumption on dairy is 200 lt/annum. Tanzania is

Beef (MT) 319,112 323,775 394,604 471,692 479,071 486,736.10 508,355.17

Pork (MT) 54,360 79,200 18,899 37,191 37,773 38,377.40 41,467.82

Chicken (MT) 99,540 104,292 63,597 78,110 79,332 80,601.30 86,205.78

➢ To protect the health of butchers and slaughter house personnel.

➢ To prevent unnecessary contamination of building and equipment of the abattoir.

➢ To diagnose disease conditions for control purpose.

➢ To ensure that carcasses, parts or organs marked unfit for human

❑ The hue (primary colour), chroma (intensity) and the value

Buffalo meat and beef Cherry red

❑ After exsanguinations of the animal, the oxygen is used up and the

❑ Hemoglobin, catalase and cytochrome also play a small role in meat

❑ The capacity of meat to retain its water during the application of

✓ Marination employs Freezing (4-hr)

Marination results in sustainable losses of Fe, Zn & Mg.

✓ Thawing meat slowly in the refrigerator generally results in greater

(i) The myofibrils and

(2) a shift from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism favoring the

➢ Loss of Structural Integrity

Fish & Meat Full Notes

Fish & Meat Full Notes

Fish & Meat Full Notes