Thawing of Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) Frozen Fillets by Different Brine Concentrations: Evaluation of Physico-chemical Quality Indices

Researchers have disclosed that. In the frozen fish, thawing plays an important role in membrane disintegration and quality change as well as affecting sensory attributes. According to importance of thawing process on the final quality of frozen fish fillet, the present research aimed to evaluate quality changes of Silver carp fillets (some major physico-chemical indices) which have been thawed with different bine concentration (0, 1.5, 3, 4.5 & 6 %). Results demonstrated that brine concentration had significant effect on the water holding capacity; WHC. The minimum and maximum content of WHC has been recorded in the control and treatment with 3% brine-water, respectively. The obtained results also have been shown that the lowest reduction in the drip loss was observed in those fillets received 1.5% brine-water (p<0.05). However, regarding to fillet's hardness, the recorded results revealed that there is no significant difference between experimental treatments. The result of chemical analysis also indicated that the minimum content of TVB-N is for the sample thawed with 4% brine-water (13.86 mg nitrogen per 100-gram fish fillet). Considering TBA index, overall trend showed that there is an ascendant process for this index in different concentration of brine-water. In the other words, although the minimum content of TBA has been recorded for control sample (0.62 MD kg-1 fish fillet), but there was no significant difference observed between other treatments. Thus, on the base of obtained results, using of brine with the concentration of 3% can be suggested for the Silver carp frozen fillet thawing in the seafood processing industry.