• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.131-138
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• 1985

The preservative effect of modified-atmosphere storage on the shelf-life of packed semi-salted and dried mackerel, Scomber japonicus, was examined. The semi-salted and dried mackerel fillets were packed in laminated plastic film bags (polyester/nylon/casted polypropylene: $12{\mu}m/15{\mu}m/60{\mu}m,\;15{\times}16cm$) filled with air (control, C), nitrogen gas (N), deoxygenized air (O) prepared by using free-oxygen absorber enclosed in the bag, in vacuum(V), and stored at $5^{\circ}C$. The quality of packed sample during the storage were examined in terms of viable cell counts of bacteria, thiobarbituric acid(TBA) value, perozide value(POV), volatile basic nitrogen(VBN), trimethylamine(TMA), adenosine triphosphate(ATP) and its related compounds and sensory evaluation. The results obtained are as follows: The pH of all the samples was in the range of $6.1{\pm}0.2$, and the contents of VBN and amino nitrogen of them increased during storage. In color values, L value(lightness) decreased while a and b values (red and yellow) revealed a tendency to increase during storage. The viable cell counts of the control sample(C) increased to $3.0{\times}10^6/g$ after 15 days storage but those of the other samples(V, N and O)were in the range of $2{\sim}6{\times}10^5/g$ after 20 days storage. The content of TMA increased during storage, but the histamine content showed a little change during storage and its content of all samples were less than 16 mg/100g. The inosinic acid(IMP) was rapidly degraded while inosine and hypoxanthine increased during storage. The TBA value of the control(C) reached a peak in 9 days and then decreased gradually while that of the sample(O) showed a little change during storage. The changes in POV of all the samples during storage showed a similar tendency to the TBA value. Fatty acid composition of raw mackerel consists of $35.6\%$ of saturated acid, $30.3\%$ of monoenoic acid and $34.2\%$ of polyenoic acid. The major fatty acid of the sample products were oleic acid($C_{18:1}$), palmitic acid($C_{16:0}$), docosahexaenoic acid($C_{22:6}$). The contents of polyenoic acid such as $C_{22:6},\;C_{20:5}$ decreased during storage while the other fatty acids showed a little change. From the results of sensory evaluation, the shelf-life of the control sample(C) was about 7 days and that of sample(V), (N) and (O) was about 15 days. It was concluded that deoxygenized atmosphere(free-oxygen absorber enclosed in the bag) was a good condition for preserving the quality of semi-salted and dried mackerel.