Quantitative changes in bacteria, amino acids and biogenic amines in sardine (Sardina pilchardus) stored at ambient temperature (25–28°C) and in ice

Abstract

Summary Freshly caught sardines contained high levels of bacteria located mainly on the skin and the gills. These bacteria invaded and grew rapidly in sardine muscle, reaching 5x108 c.f.u. g‐1 and 6x108 c.f.u. g‐1 respectively after 24h at ambient temperature and 8 days in ice. Histidine, arginine, lysine, tyrosine and methionine levels decreased during storage. The other amino acids, except proline and taurine, accumulated in the fish muscle, indicating an extensive proteolysis. Histamine, cadaverine and putrescine accumulated to levels of 2350ppm, 1050ppm and 300ppm respectively, after 24h storage at ambient temperature. Histamine and cadaverine reached similar levels after 8 days storage in ice, whereas putrescine formation was insignificant. Spermidine and spermine levels increased slightly under ambient conditions. Salting the fish at 8% delayed bacterial and chemical changes but only in iced sardines. The high content of free histidine found in sardines and the susceptibility of its muscle to histamine and cadaverine formation could explain its increasing implication in incidents of histamine poisoning.

Biogenic amines, amino acids and microflora changes in Indian mackerel (Rastrellinger kanagurta) stored at ambient (25–29 °C) and ice temperature (0 °C)

“…In general, the concentration of histidine, lysine and tyrosine decreased after 12 h stored at ambient temperature. Similar result was also found in sardine (Ababouch et al 1991) and fish sauce (Zaman et al 2011). In contrast, free amino acids were reported to increase during storage in dry-cured grass carp (Zhang et al 2011).…”

“…Wendakoon et al (1990) found correlation between amino acids and biogenic amines, whereas, RuizCapillas and Moral (2004) only correlated histamine concentration to that of histidine concentration, other amines were not correlated to its corresponding amino acid. Other authors reported the absence of such correlation (Ababouch et al 1991;Antoine et al 2002;Ruiz-Capillas and Moral 2002). The profile of biogenic amines in fish is also influenced by the type of microbial flora found in the aquatic environment.…”

Quantitative assessment of total and Gram-positive aerobic bacteria in fresh and ambient-temperature-stored sub-tropical marine fish

“…The TABC in the muscle of fish in our study was lower than that the TABC of 3 9 10 4 , 10 5 , and 8.7 9 10 4 cfu g -1 (Ababouch et al 1991;Lakshmanan et al 2002;Manju et al 2007) found in some tropical fish and enumerated at 28-37°C. However, the bacterial load found in muscle in our study did not agree with that of Kim et al (2001) who rarely found bacteria in the muscle of Pacific Mackerel.…”

Use of volatile and non‐volatile amines to evaluate the freshness of anchovies stored in ice

“…However, in some cases formation of toxic amounts of HI in pelagic fish stored in ice have been reported. 17,37 Moreover, some relationship between HI and enterobacteria development was found. In fact, levels of HI were negligible before enterobacteria counts reached 10 5 cfu g −1 , which are the minimum counts reported to be able to produce significant amounts of HI.…”