SHELF-LIFE OF VACUUM-PACKED SMOKED SALMON - MICROBIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL-CHANGES DURING STORAGE

Among all the smoked fishes and smoked fish products, the salmon is su rely the most appreciated by the Italian consumers; nevertheless their sensorial and hygienical characteristics often are not quite up to th e mark. In Italy smoked salmon is usually sold as sliced vacuum-packed product with a minimum declared shelf-life of 3 or 6 months, kept at refrigeration temperature. The aim of our research was to establish if the real storage potential of this kind of product processed in our c ounty, 80 portions of sliced, vacuum-packed smoked salmon were analyze d chemicaly and bacteriologically to assess their stability up to the expiry date. 40 samples of Atlantic salmon (S. salar) and 40 samples o f chub salmon (O. keta) were considered; their declared shelf-life was 80 days for Norvegian salmon and, respectively, 160 days for the Cana dian one. The results of the chemical and microbiological analyses lea d us to conclude that the effective shelf-life of the Atlantic salmon and of Canadian salmon in nearly 40-50 days and, respectively, 80 days if the fish product is kept always at 2/3 degrees C of temperature. T he determination of TMA and TVBN may give interesting data on the sens orial and hygienical characteristics of this food during the storage.