Dear all
It has been pointed out to me, in a friendly way, that the line below my
name in my message of 7 December implies I work for the NOAA. My apologies
to NOAA for trying to insinuate myself on their payroll, but that is not the
case and the line appeared there as a result of an error in starting typing
in the wrong place after a cut and paste. The line should have followed the
reference as the source for the publication.
Yes, I agree with Klaus Schallié that high salt content can be associated
with poor quality, but a cause might at times lie not so much in slow
freezing, but in delays before freezing. Tunas are often not frozen
immediately after capture on board the seiner and are held in refrigerated
seawater tanks until there are enough fish in the tank to be worth freezing.
The seawater is topped up with salt to a concentration that can be used for
brine freezing and the tunas then brine frozen. If fishing is slow, or has
been interrupted, fish might be in the tanks for a few days before freezing.
This will allow for uptake of salt and allow spoilage to occur. These fish
can be recognised even in the frozen state by a washed out appearance of the
skin, and the presence of a film of brown-discoloured frozen brine on the
surface. Freshly frozen tunas have a bright, clean appearance.
Peter Howgate
(not working for anyone apart from myself - occasionally)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Dec 08 2001 - 02:03:09 PST