Fish Quality Index Method: Principles, weaknesses, validation, and alternatives—A review

Abstract

Fish is a high nutritional value matrix of which production and consumption have been increasing in the last years. Advancements in the efficient evaluation of freshness are essential to optimize the quality assessment, to improve consumer safety, and to reduce raw material losses. Therefore, it is necessary to use rapid, nondestructive, and objective methodologies to evaluate the quality of this matrix. Quality Index Method (QIM) is a tool applied to indicate fish freshness through a sensory evaluation performed by a group of assessors. However, the use of QIM as an official method for quality assessment is limited by the protocol, sampling size, specificities of the species, storage conditions, and assessor's experience, which make this method subjective. Also, QIM may present divergences regarding the development of microorganisms and chemical analysis. In this way, novel quality evaluation methods such as electronic noses, electronic tongues, machine vision system, and colorimetric sensors have been proposed, and novel technologies such as proteomics and mitochondrial analysis have been developed. In this review, the weaknesses of QIM were exposed, and novel methodologies for quality evaluation were presented. The consolidation of these novel methodologies and their use as methods of quality assessment are an alternative to sensory methods, and their understanding enables a more effective fish quality control.

Application of Nanocomposites from Bees Products and Nano-Selenium in Edible Coating for Catfish Fillets Biopreservation

“…The TVB-N in fish results from their protein degradation, either by bacterial or autolytic enzyme actions; the acceptable limits for TVB-N in fish are preferably ≤35 mg/100 g [30,54]. However, the tendency of fish lipids to be oxidized is extremely high because of their contents of fatty acids (polyunsaturated) and the formation of TBARS [29]; the normal limits of TBARS for fish acceptability should be ≤3-4 mg malondialdehyde/kg [55].…”

“…The excellent nutraceuticals and therapeutic aptitudes of biosynthesized SeNPs were prominent among other metals NPs, including their antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, anticancer and immune-stimulation properties [21,24,27]. Although many reports stated that SeNP biosynthesis uses numerous plant derivatives [19,20,[27][28][29][30], including essential oils, leaves, fruits and bark extracts; only limited investigations studied the Pro usages of SeNPs [12].…”

“…Fish meat is the foremost and most economical source of animal proteins; its value and importance increased with appropriate processing and preserving approaches [28]. From them, the flesh of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) has a comparably elevated protein content (~16.9-17.9%) and low fat percentage (~3.95-7.57%); they were positioned as the ideal species for further utilization because of their endurance in diverse conditions and their extraordinarily high growth rate and processing ability [29,30]. However, harvested catfish are frequently subjected to numerous pathogenic microorganisms and spoilage conditions, which intensify public concerns regarding their products and require additional verifications of their potential usages and safety [30].…”

Sensory evaluation of fresh/frozen mackerel products: A review

“…Due to the inherent differences between fish species, it is necessary to develop QIM programs for each species. In this way, one of the basic principles of QIM (species specificity) seems to be a disadvantage since it limits the procedure to qualify the species to which it is applied and does not allow generalization of the results (Bernardo et al., 2020).…”

Developing a Machine Vision System Equipped with UV Light to Predict Fish Freshness Based on Fish-Surface Color

“…Normally, consumers utilize sensory methods (color, smell, or touch) to assess fish freshness [3]. Reliable indicators of the sanitary quality and safety of fish [4], include chemical methods to determine the total bacteria count, the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). However, the conventional sensory, chemical, and microbiological methods are imprecise, time consuming, expensive, destructive, and labor-intensive; a fast, inexpensive, and simple method is needed.…”