The aim of this study was to determine the effect of processing on the chemical composition of seafoods. Raw materials and processed seafoods (canned tuna, dried horse mackerel, smoked salmon, marinated anchovy, and brine-salted bonito) were obtained from different firms and analyzed. Dried and smoked seafoods contained lower amount of moisture but higher amounts of the other components than raw materials (p<0.05). Marinated anchovies and brine-salted bonitos also contained higher amounts of fat, carbohydrate and energy (p<0.05) than raw material. Except canning with water, all processing technologies decreased the moisture content but increased fat and energy values (p<0.05) of the fish. It is concluded that processed seafoods are rich in chemical components and very nutritive, but they are generally not suitable for low-calorie diets due to the high amounts of fat and energy value. Canned tuna with salted water may be advised for low-calorie diets.Keywords: chemical composition, seafood processing, salting, marinating, smoking, canning, drying *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: suhendan@istanbul.edu.tr
IntroductionSeafoods are very important for a healthy diet and it is popular to consume these foods as raw, frozen, canned, smoked, marinated, salted, and dried all over the world. Processing presents consumer different tastes, and minimizes the waste of seafoods. It is also very important to increase shelf life of such a perishable food since it leads to decrease economic losses. Therefore; a great demand occurred to the seafood processing technology (Ünlüsayın, 1999).Seafoods represent an excellent option as a major source of nutrients and nutritional factors affecting health, quality of life, general well-being and longevity. It is known that 98% of total mass of seafood flesh consist of water, protein and fat. However ratios of these components change due to the species of fish, and processing technology (Sikorski et al., 1990). Changes of nutrient components in foods occurred due to the processing must be known since they are important for human health (Birkeland et al., 2004).The aim of this study was to determine the effect of processing on the chemical composition of seafoods. The most popular processed seafoods (canned tuna, smoked salmon, marinated anchovy, brine-salted bonito and dried horse mackerel) were analyzed before and after processing.
Materials and MethodsRaw materials and canned, dried, marinated, and brinesalted samples obtained from 2 different firms and smoked products from 3 different firms in Istanbul, were subjected to analysis. The results were presented as mean values. With the exception of canned products; samples were transported to the laboratory in ice-boxes. Two different types of canned tuna (canned with vegetable oil / canned with salted water), and two types of marinated anchovy (packaged with vegetable oil / packaged with chili pepper added-vegetable oil) are popular in the market. Therefore, all of the products were analyzed. Moisture content was determined...