Abstract
Changes in chemical, textural, and volatile flavor properties were investigated for mackerel fish (Scomberomorus niphonius) stored in cold rooms (5°C and 0°C) and freezers (−20°C and −55°C). Correlation and multivariate analysis showed a significant time-dependent relationship between total volatile base nitrogen (TVBN)/ trimethylamine (TMA) (Y) and storage time (X) for fish stored in cold rooms, with R = 0.996 − 0.997 values of Gompertz model (Y = a*exp(−exp(b − cX)), and there was a good linear relationship between TVBN and TMA. Combined with the textural properties, the polynomial fitting model (Y = a + bX + cX2 +…, R = 0.982 − 0.991) was applied and elucidated the correlation between the hardness/springiness (Y) and TVBN (X), the rational function model (Y = (a + bX)/(1 + cX + dX2), R = 0.975 − 0.979) used for the chewiness (Y) and TVBN (X). The electronic nose analysis revealed that the variation of muscle volatile flavor compounds was found out along the PC1 to the right, and then along the PC2 to the upward and further to the downward based on the principal component analysis (PCA). Furthermore, the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) had better distinction effect for the changes of fish flavor than PCA. Results from this study suggested that the texture analysis in combination with electronic nose techniques might be utilized as a rapid expeditious process for predicting quality and shelf life of the fresh fish or other aquatic products.
