FRESHNESS QUALITY OF HARP SEAL (PHOCA-GROENLANDICA) MEAT

Freshness quality of seal meat during the post-mortem storage period w as determined by monitoring the profile of nucleotides and their break down products. Analytical conditions for quantitative determination of adenosine 5'-triphosphate, adenosine 5'-diphosphate, adenosine 5'-mon ophosphate, inosine 5'-monophosphate, hypoxanthine, xanthine, and inos ine in harp seal meat extracts were examined by reversed-phase high-pe rformance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Freshness indicator K, K-o, K- i, G, and P values were calculated. Linear increases in K, K-i, and K- o values with increasing storage periods of up to 19 days were observe d. Comparison of K-o values of seal with those from beef indicated tha t seal meat behaves similarly to beef. Comparison of the K-i values of seal meat with those of cod and pollock indicated that seal meat has a better keeping quality than fish species. Comparison of the G and P values of seal meat with those of cod indicated a similar trend. Thus, HPLC for nucleotide determination lends itself to the evaluation of s eal freshness quality. The K, K-i, K-o, and P values offered a better indication for seal meat freshness during the early stages of storage than the G value.