Slaughtering of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) in liquid ice: influenceon fish quality

Liquid ice or binary ice is a new food chilling technique that requires les s time to chill products and acts more uniformly than other types of ice. T he practical advantage of binary ice is its purnpability. Moreover, on acco unt of the microscopic size of the ice crystals, the main benefit of binary ice is its ability for rapid chilling of fish and to provide lower fish te mperature, which in turn slows down both enzymatic and bacterial spoilage a ctivity and hence maintains the fish in better quality. Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) is one of the main species farmed in the Mediterranean area and its production has undergone a huge increase in rece nt years, reaching more than 50% of the total production of all marine farm ed fish. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of slaughtering by immersion in liquid ice on the quality of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) vs the commercial slaughter method by immersion in ice plus water. Quality was estimated by physico-chemical and sensory parameters immediately after death and during ice storage. Liquid ice reduced the time taken by fish un til complete immobilisation; however the lowest temperature (congruent to - 2.2 degreesC) attained by the liquid ice tank caused the appearance of clou dy eyes that significantly reduces the commercial value of the fish.