Contact
Valur Norðri Gunnlaugsson
Research Group Leader
valur.n.gunnlaugsson@matis.is
Comparison of farmed and wild cod fillets during light salting
The aim was to go through the processing process of lightly salted products made from wild cod after freezing and farmed cod before freezing, from filleting to consumers. This basic information was to be used to formulate new processing and transport processes for the export of lightly salted farmed fish products to southern Europe. There was a significant difference between the characteristics of pre-rigor cod farming and wild post-rigor cod during spraying and pickling. The uptake of brine was much higher in wild cod, but the farmed fish picked up a small amount of brine, which resulted in a small weight gain and low salt content. This large difference in salt uptake affected most of the variables examined, such as the water content and sensory properties of fillets. The difference was mainly in the texture factors, as the wild cod generally had a softer, juicier and softer texture, as it was more watery. The shelf life of farmed fish was longer. The main conclusion was that farmed fish products have different properties than wild fish products, but not worse. However, the timing of processing makes light salting difficult. If pre-rigor fish is salted immediately after filleting, death stiffness counteracts salt absorption. Therefore, traditional processes in the processing of wild post-rigor fish can not be transferred to prerigor volcanic fish. The research was part of the project "Processing and quality control of farmed cod, more specifically a summary for work component 5.
The aim of this part of this project was to look at the process of lightly salted cod, both from wild catch and farmed cod. To gather information from the processing part and try to improve the process and adjust the process to farmed cod. The results from this phase of the project strongly indicate that there is a big difference between farmed and wild cod when we look at physical properties. After injection and brine salting of the cod the wild cod had gained much weight while the farmed one did not gain any weight and therefore had low salt content. This difference in brine uptake resulted in difference between the sample groups in almost every research segment of this phase. The wild cod had more salt content and therefore more water content which resulted in more tender, softer and juicer fillets. It is obvious that those products are of different nature and farmed cod might not be suitable for the salting process because of limited brine uptake. However, despite the low salt content of the farmed cod, the fillets had better shelf life than the wild cod. The farmed cod has other characteristics than wild catch, and those characteristics have to be utilized in processing and production of consumer goods.
Report closed until December 2011 / Report closed until December 2011