The Importance Of Fish Spoilage

Food preservation serves as one of the major problems in the food industry. As stated by Ghaly et al, 2010 it is very important to preserve food so it can be transported from one place to another. Ghaly et al, 2010 stated that there is a need to reduce the levels of microorganisms that causes spoilage while maintaining the food quality. Kader et al, 2005 also explained the importance to maintain food quality and according to them 10% of cereals in developing countries are lost to spoilage. Kentor et al, 1997, and Nas, 1978 also reported similar cases where most food are lost due to spoilage. This has led to the need to develop techniques and processes to save some of our food which is lost due to spoilage.

One major food product implicated

According to Huss, 1996, and Gally et al, 2010, food spoilage may be caused by a wide range of reactions including some that are mainly physical or chemical, enzymes or microorganisms. The factors associated with food spoilage can be linked to intrinsic food properties (biochemical composition) and extrinsic properties which include contamination during harvesting, slaughter and processing as well as temperature abuse(Huss, 1996). For fresh foods the primary quality changes may be categorized as bacterial growth and metabolism resulting in possible pH-changes and formation of toxic compounds which is also associated with bad odour, gas and slime formation as well as the oxidation of lipids and pigments in fat-containing foods which also results in undesirable flavours, formation of compounds as well as discoloration (Huss, 1996). Research conducted by Gally et al, 2010 to determine fish spoilage mechanism and preservation techniques came with the finding that fish spoilage results from three basic mechanisms: enzymatic autolysis, oxidation and microbial

The degradation of ATP is due to the activity of ATP-ase which is activated as a result of the lowering of the pH by lactic acid. Other enzymes activated to increase the autolytic activity include; Cathepsin, chymotrypsin, trypsin, cacboxypeptidase, calpain, collagenase and TMAO- demethylase (Nguyen, 2006). Autolysis as stated by Huss, 1994 and Ghaly, 2010 can cause a great decline in fish quality and therefore suggested the use of low temperature as a measure to reduce enzymatic