Effect of Season on Salt-Extractable Protein in Muscle from Trawler-Caught Cod and on its Stability During Frozen Storage

Abstract

Periodical tests made on 272 fillets from fresh, postrigor, trawler-caught cod have shown that there is a slight decrease in salt-extractable proteins during the spring spawning period (March, April, and May). This was accompanied by a similar slight decrease in the lipid content of the muscle.When other fillets from these same lots of cod were frozen and stored at − 3.3 C and − 12 C, those from the fish caught during the spring spawning period tended to deteriorate faster, as indicated by the rate at which the EPN values decreased during storage. When the fish were stored at − 26 C for up to 2 years, the EPN changes during storage were so retarded that seasonal differences in storage quality could not be observed.