FOOD
SCIENCE
FISH:
India has coastline of 5,100 km. Over 200 edible
fish variety are known commercially important
marine types are sardines, mackerel, tuna,
catfish, scombroides. Brown duck, ribbon fish,
prawns and cuttle. Carps, catla, rohu, mrigal,
murrels and hilsa are the main catch from
inland water.
CLASSIFICATION:
Although fish contains complete proteins and can
be alternative for meat in the diet, fish
consumption per capita is far lower than that of
meat.
Edible fish are categorised as either fin fish or
shellfish. The term fin fish refers to the fishes that
have bony skeleton. Most fin fish come from salt
water, however, great lakes and inland water add
considerable amount to the total catch.
Edible fish are mainly salt water fish. Shell fish is
used to designate both mullusks and crustaceans.
Shell fish are highly perishable. They are best when
purchased directly from the fisher man. They may
be expensive at shop in inland areas because of
their short storage life.
The consumption and demand for shellfish,
especially shrimps and prawns, has increased since
frozen products became widely available.
Crustacea have legs with partly jointed outer shells.
They include crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimps.
The dense coarse flesh is found mainly in the claws
and tail, example, in the lobster and crab.
This flesh is not as digestible as other type of fish.
Lobsters and crabs are best keep alive upto the point
of their cooking or freezing, otherwise they
deteriorate in quality in a matter of a day or less.
Molluscs have harder outer shells and no legs. They
have hinged shells like oysters, scallops and mussels.
Others have shells in one piece like snails, cockles
and winkles.
COMPOSITION AND
NUTRITIVE VALUE:
The composition of fish varies. Fish are not good of
source of energy because they are not good sources
of carbohydrates and fats.
CARBOHYDRATE: the shell fish has less fat and
more carbohydrate than fin fish. Like meat, fish
contains some glycogen in muscle tissue. In the live
fish, glycogen is the source of stored energy. Oysters
are notable for their high content of glycogen, on an
average of 2-3%.
Commonly consumed fish are carp, rohu, sardine,
mackerel pomfrets, seer fish, prawns, ribbon fish
sole, Bombay duck, catfish and crab.
PROTEIN: fish is an excellent source of protein
due to its quality and quantity. They contain around
20% protein. The biological value of fish protein is
80.
FAT: Fish contains less amount of fat compared to
meat and poultry. The lipid content of both fish and
.
prawns is very low and varies within a very narrow
range of 1-2.8%.
Fish contain saturated fatty acids monounsaturated
fatty acids polyunsaturated fatty acids.
MINERALS: Fish is rich in calcium particularly small
fish when eaten with bones. Marine fish or ocean
fish are good source of iodine, selenium and floride.
Oysters are good source of copper and iron. Sodium
content of fresh water fish is slightly less than meat.
Shell fishes such as oysters are among the nature
richest source of zinc.
VITAMINS: Sea food contains significant amount of
vitamin B12 especially shell fishes . Fish liver oils are
excellent source fat soluble vitamins. Shark liver oil
contains 10,000- 24,000 IU of vitamin A per gram of
oil. Rohu contains vitamin C. Fish are food source of
niacin and vitamin D.
FISH PROTEIN CONCENTRATE: It is name
given to edible fish product suitable for human
consumption prepared from fresh fish. The fish
protein concentrate, an essentially odourless powder
is very rich in protein 70-80% with high lysine
content. It has high biological value protein.
SELECTION:
Fish that are fresh can be easily identified by noting
the following qualities:
• The skin looks bright, moist and shiny. The scales
should be firmly attached to the skin. The skin on
stale fish may signs of wrinkling and shrinking
away from the flesh.
• The eyes of a freshly caught fish will be convex,
the pupil black and the cornea translucent. The
eyes should be bright, clear and bulging and not
sunken.
• The gills of freshly caught fish are bright red, but
as the blood in them oxidises they rapidly turn
brownish and any mucus on them turns opaque.
• If fish is spilt along the backbone and lifted, the
bone should stick firmly to the flesh. If the bone
separates easily, the fish is stale.
• The surface should be free of dirt and slime.
• The flesh should be firm to touch with no traces
of browning or drying around the edges.
• A fish having odour indicates deterioration due to
oxidation of polyunsaturated fat and bacterial
growth.
FISH COOKERY:
Fish is usually cooked by dry heat-broiling, baking
and frying. Moist heat is also effectively employed
to protect the delicate flavour of the fish. Fish such
as salmon, mackerel and herring contain some fat
and require very little addition of fat in cooking.
Some fish like code, haddock, halibut and bass,
contain very little fat and require added fat during
cooking. Fin fish may be poached in water or court
bouillon, a highly seasoned stalk that enhance the
flavour of fish.
SPOILAGE:
Fish is consider in prime condition for upto three
hours from catch, in average condition from three to
six hours and on the way to spoilage from the sixth
hour.
MICROBIOLOGICAL
While live fish is bacteriologically sterile, there are
large number of bacteria on the surface slime and
digestive tracts of living fish. When fish is killed, these
bacteria multiply rapidly and attack all tissues. Since
the bacteria live on the cold-blooded fish at rather
low ocean temperature, they are adapted to cold and
continue to grow even under refrigerator condition.
PHYSIOLOGICAL
Fish struggle when caught and hence all the glycogen
stores in the muscle and liver are used up. There is no
glycogen left for being converted into lactic acid which
helps to increase the pH of the tissues and retard the
multiplication of micro-organisms.
BIOCHEMICAL
The important biochemical change leading to the
development of the characteristics fishy off odour is
due to the production of trimethylamine by the action
of bacterial enzymes on phospholipids and choline
present in fish.
STORAGE:
• It should be kept covered in the coldest part of the
refrigerator for no longer than 2 days.
• Prepacked fish and shell fish can be refrigerated in
the original package for a short time.
• Fish wrapped in butcher paper should be taken out
and wrapped in aluminium foil or plastic wrap.
COLD STORAGE:
Fish are packed with crushed ice in suitable
container. This will prevent spoilage for 1-2 days.
PRESERVATION:
Fish can be preserved by canning, chilling, freezing and
curing.
CANNING:
In canning, fish is dresses and washed. It is cut into pieces
and filled in cans in saline. The cans are double steam under
vacuum. The sealed can sterilised at steam pressure at 121.1
degree C for 90 min.
CHILLING:
The enzymes that caused spoilage of fish are active at low
temperatures and fish oil become oxidized at fairly low
temperature, fish catches subjected to
temperatures above freezing deteriorate fast. The
entire fish catch is usually aboard the fishing vessel is
packed with crushed ice or by mechanical
refrigeration.
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