Black seeds (Nigella sativa) essential oil impact on the microbiological and oxidative stability of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fish kofta

Abstract

Nowadays, the customer's approach towards naturally preserved fish meat products gained interest to overcome health risks of synthetic preservatives. So, our investigation aimed to study the effectiveness of natural preservatives for controlling spoilage in fish product. The potential of different concentrations of black seeds oil (1%, 1.5% and 2%) to act as antioxidant and antibacterial in tilapia kofta was evaluated. The count of Aerobic plat (APC), Staphylococcal, Psychrotrophic, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas counts recorded in control group were significantly differing between different concentrations of black seed (P< 0.05) throughout days of chilling. These results highlighted the ability black seed oil to increase shelf life of chilled fish kofta and improve sensory attributes (color, odor, texture and over all acceptability) and physicochemical characteristics (pH, TBA TVB-N and TMA) stored up to 14 days at 4°C. These results imply that the black seed oil especially with concentration 2% alternate option to be utilized as a food additive to increase the shelf life and acceptability in Tilapia kofta.