Effect of Delayed Icing on the Microbiological,Chemical, and Sensory Properties of Caspian Sea Golden Grey Mullet (Liza aurata)

Research has shown that fresh fish is an extremely perishable food as compared to other food commodities. In this study, quality deterioration during storage of golden grey mullet (GGM) iced for 0, 6, and 12 h after landing was monitored. Microbiological indices (total viable count, TVC; psychrophilic counts, PTC; lactic acid bacteria, LAB; and Enterobacteriaceae counts, EBC), chemical parameters (pH; total volatile basic nitrogen, TVB-N; peroxide value, PV; thiobarbituric acid, TBA; and free fatty acids, FFA) values increased over the preicing duration. Delayed icing did not lead to significant increases (p > 0.05) in TVC, PTC, LAB, and EBC throughout the period of storage. All chemical indices increased during storage (p < 0.05). This study showed that sensorial analysis of GGM correlated well with microbiological analysis. Results of this study based on the microbiological and raw fish sensorial data indicated that the shelf life of GGM stored in ice immediately after catch was approximately 10–11 days, while the 6- and 12-h delays in icing shortened the shelf life to approximately 6–7 and 2–3 days, respectively.