<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Smoked sprats are delicious and nutritionally valuable product. Besides protein, it contains high amount of unsaturated fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. Nowadays, human interest for fish product consumption is increasing. It leads to the demand for increased shelf life of the smoked sprats. One way to prolong the shelf life is to use some pre-treatment prior to smoking. The aim of study was to analyse the effect of pre-treatment on smoked Baltic sprat quality and microbiological parameters. Various compositions of brine using salts (NaCl, CaCl2) and acetic acid in different proportions were used for fresh sprat pre-treatment. Pre-treatment had the influence on physical parameters; pre-treated samples had higher salt and lower moisture content, and lower pH, which allowed prolonging the shelf life of smoked sprats. The highest pH was in the control sample 6.6, and it allowed growth of yeasts, moulds, <italic>Pseudomonas</italic> spp., and mesophilic and facultative anaerobic microorganisms. The results demonstrated that after two-week storage of the smoked sprats the growth of moulds (1×102 CFU g−1) was observed only for smoked sprats without pre-treatment (control sample), indicating the positive effect of pre-treatment. <italic>Salmonella</italic> spp., <italic>Clostridium perfingens, Listeria monocytogenes,</italic> and <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> were not detected in any of the analysed samples. After pre-treatment in brine, containing combination of NaCl and CaCl2, smoked fish had darker colour compared to control sample or sample with sodium chloride only. Any of applied pre-treatments, except brine containing NaCl, made firmer texture of the smoked fish.
</abstract>

Smoked sprats are delicious and nutritionally valuable product. Besides protein, it contains high amount of unsaturated fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. Nowadays, human interest for fish product consumption is increasing. It leads to the demand for increased shelf life of the smoked sprats. One way to prolong the shelf life is to use some pre-treatment prior to smoking. The aim of study was to analyse the effect of pre-treatment on smoked Baltic sprat quality and microbiological parameters. Various compositions of brine using salts (NaCl, CaCl2) and acetic acid in different proportions were used for fresh sprat pre-treatment. Pre-treatment had the influence on physical parameters; pre-treated samples had higher salt and lower moisture content, and lower pH, which allowed prolonging the shelf life of smoked sprats. The highest pH was in the control sample 6.6, and it allowed growth of yeasts, moulds, Pseudomonas spp., and mesophilic and facultative anaerobic microorganisms. The results demonstrated that after two-week storage of the smoked sprats the growth of moulds (1×102 CFU g−1) was observed only for smoked sprats without pre-treatment (control sample), indicating the positive effect of pre-treatment. Salmonella spp., Clostridium perfingens, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli were not detected in any of the analysed samples. After pre-treatment in brine, containing combination of NaCl and CaCl2, smoked fish had darker colour compared to control sample or sample with sodium chloride only. Any of applied pre-treatments, except brine containing NaCl, made firmer texture of the smoked fish.

Pre-treatment Effect on Physical and Microbial Parameters of Smoked Baltic Sprats

Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies

Rural Sustainability Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Smoked sprats are delicious and nutritionally valuable product. Besides protein, it contains high amount of unsaturated fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins....

Pre-treatment Effect on Physical and Microbial Parameters of Smoked Baltic Sprats

Published Online: Dec 22, 2021

Page range: 22 - 30

Received: May 06, 2021

Accepted: Oct 14, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plua-2021-0014

Keywords
smoked sprats, microorganisms, physical parameters, texture, colour

© 2021 Santa Puke et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Pre-treatment Effect on Physical and Microbial Parameters of Smoked Baltic Sprats

Published Online: Dec 22, 2021

Page range: 22 - 30

Received: May 06, 2021

Accepted: Oct 14, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plua-2021-0014

Keywordssmoked sprats, microorganisms, physical parameters, texture, colour

© 2021 Santa Puke et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
smoked sprats, microorganisms, physical parameters, texture, colour