Drip Loss Of Fish Essay

An important aspect of increasing the shelf life and quality of fresh fish products is optimizing storage temperatures and reducing drip loss. A major threat to maximizing fresh fish products´ shelf life and quality during processing, storage, and transport are high ambient and fluctuations in temperatures. For example, increasing the temperature of products may lead to higher loads of specific spoilage bacteria and accelerated degradation of muscle (Lauzon et al., 2007; Mai et al., 2012; Olafsdottir et al., 2006a, 2006b; Margeirsson et al., 2012; Sigholt et al., 1997). Accordingly, spoilage and degradation affect the water-holding capacity of the muscle (Olsson et al., 2003) and as a result, fluid, consisting of water and dissolved proteins, is released without application of external forces (except gravity). Jennen et al. (2007) identify it as the so-called drip loss. Drip loss is widely considered being one of the most important technological quality attributes of fish products. For one thing,

During processing, the temperature increased to 0.8 ± 0.3 °C and 1.8 ± 0.8 °C, in the saithe and redfish fillets, respectively. Further increases in temperature occurred during tagging and weighing of the fillets, and the subsequent holding period. The degree and rate of temperature changes during holding were influenced by fillet size, temperature differences of the fish and ambient temperatures. The rate of change (slope) in the fillets held at 16 °C, higher for smaller fillets (Figure 1). Especially during the first hour of holding when the slope reached 10.77, 8.69 and 6.5 for the redfish, the small and large saithe fillets, respectively. Hence, the smaller fillets warmed up more quickly compared to larger fillets, as the smaller fillets were thinner and the mass per fillet was less. These observations were in harmony with the study of Graham et al.,