Processing, Quality and Elemental Safety of Fish

Abstract

Fish is a food that is widely produced, marketed, and consumed around the world. It is a basic component of human nutrition due to its chemical and nutritional composition, but at the same time is highly perishable and susceptible to contamination throughout the food chain, compromising its quality and safety. Fishing and aquaculture products, being perishable, require adequate processing and preservation to maintain their quality and safety as much as possible until their acquisition and final consumption. Different preservation methods have been developed and used to extend the shelf life of fish products with minimal impact on their nutritional and organoleptic properties. Therefore, the objective of this document is to provide, through the search, analysis, and selection of information from various databases such as Scopus, Scielo, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, among others, a general and basic informative description of fish, aimed at academics, producers, industrialists, and the general public that allows them to identify the basic points in the processing and preservation of the quality and safety of fish. Aspects related to production; the nutritional qualities of fish; the various physical, chemical, and biological contaminating hazards of fish; the control and prevention of contaminants and diseases for consumers; and food legislation for products are included, as well as the main traditional and modern methods applied in the preservation of fishery and aquaculture products to maintain their nutritional value, quality, and safety that allow for the availability of food and the protection of public health.