Effectiveness of combined acetic acid and ascorbic acid spray on fresh silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) fish to increase shelf-life at refrigerated temperature

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of application of acetic acid and ascorbic acid spray on the surface decontamination and shelf-life of silver carp fish at refrigerated temperature (40C) during 9 days of storage period. Silver carp is one of the most abundant freshwater fish speciesin the world. However, the rapid quality degradation soon after post-mortem makes them highly putrefactive while reducing the nutritional attributes. In this regard, our study aimed at applying organic acids to extend shelf-life of silver carp fish while investigating the quality attributes such as sensory, peroxide values, pH and microbial loads of the fish fillets during 9 days of refrigerated temperature storage (40C). Acetic acid and ascorbic acid are found to have strong antibacterial activities against different microorganisms. Fish fillets samples were treated with alone or in combination with acetic acid and ascorbic acid spray while keeping one group of fish fillets untreated. Total Viable Count (TVC) was found greater in the samples kept untreated and treated alone with acetic acid and ascorbic acid. However, fish fillets treated with acetic acid and ascorbic acid in combination were reported with lesser number of microbial counts. Moreover, Peroxide Value (PV) and pH were significantly lower in the sample treated with in combination of acetic acid and ascorbic acid. Sensory analysis revealed that fish fillets treated with combined treatment had better quality retention at the end of 9 days storage period. The findings suggest that the application of acetic acid and ascorbic acid alone or in different combination have the potential to decrease microbial loads while facilitating the shelf-life of fish fillets during 9 days of refrigerated temperature (40C) storage period.