Mild processing of seafood—A review

Abstract

Recent years have shown a tremendous increase in consumer demands for healthy, natural, high-quality convenience foods, especially within the fish and seafood sector. Traditional processing technologies such as drying or extensive heating can cause deterioration of nutrients and sensory quality uncompilable with these demands. This has led to development of many novel processing technologies, which include several mild technologies. The present review highlights the potential of mild thermal, and nonthermal physical, and chemical technologies, either used alone or in combination, to obtain safe seafood products with good shelf life and preference among consumers. Moreover, applications and limitations are discussed to provide a clear view of the potential for future development and applications. Some of the reviewed technologies, or combinations thereof, have shown great potential for non-seafood products, yet data are missing for fish and seafood in general. The present paper visualizes these knowledge gaps and the potential for new technology developments in the seafood sector. Among identified gaps, the combination of mild heating (e.g., sous vide or microwave) with more novel technologies such as pulsed electric field, pulsed light, soluble gas stabilization, cold plasma, or Ohmic heat must be highlighted. However, before industrial applications are available, more research is needed.

Emerging technologies in seafood processing: An overview of innovations reshaping the aquatic food industry

“…HPP, for instance, has been shown to effectively mitigate pathogenic microorganisms in seafood, significantly reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses (Chen et al., 2022). This is particularly important in the context of raw or minimally processed seafood products, which are often associated with a higher risk of microbial contamination (Abel et al., 2022).…”

Effect of High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing on the Microbiological Quality and Bacterial Diversity of Sous-Vide-Cooked Cod

“…High hydrostatic pressure is a non-thermal food processing method for the inactivation of microorganisms that has a low impact on the nutritional value and the organoleptic properties of foods [ 7 ]. HP treatments are applied for the reduction of microbial load and shelf-life extension of many different types of ready-to-eat foods, including seafood [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Since HP treatments may affect the properties of protein-rich foods, HP treatments of low intensity (200–350 MPa) are usually employed to minimize the impact on protein texture and color in seafoods.…”

A systematic review of drying in aquatic products

“…According to high‐quality drying technologies, these dried aquatic products keep the retention of flavour substances, nutrients, quality uniformity and appearance with desirable colour and high rehydration rate 14 . High‐quality drying technologies mainly include heat pump drying (HPD), microwave drying (MD), freeze drying (FD) and combined drying (CD) 15,16 …”

“…14 High-quality drying technologies mainly include heat pump drying (HPD), microwave drying (MD), freeze drying (FD) and combined drying (CD). 15,16 The development of highly efficient detecting techniques for dried food quality control has become an important issue in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. It was prevalent that nondestructive monitoring technologies were applied to detect the quality changes in aquatic foods processing, including near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), hyperspectral imaging (HSI), Raman spectroscopy (RS), low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) technology and computer vision system (CSV).…”