Effect of Brine Concentrations on the Bacteriological and Chemical Quality and Histamine Content of Brined and Dried Milkfish

Chiu-Chu Hwang,Hsien-Feng Kung,Hung-Hui Cheng,Yi-Chen Lee,Chung-Yung Huang,Yung-Hsiang Tsai

doi:10.3390/foods9111597

Abstract

In this research, the occurrence of hygienic quality and histamine in commercial brined and dried milkfish products, and the effects of brine concentrations on the quality of brined and dried milkfish, were studied. Brined and dried milkfish products (n = 20) collected from four retail stores in Taiwan were tested to investigate their histamine-related quality. Among them, five tested samples (25%, 5/20) had histamine contents of more than 5 mg/100 g, the United States Food and Drug Administration guidelines for scombroid fish, while two (10%, 2/20) contained 69 and 301 mg/100 g of histamine, exceeding the 50 mg/100 g potential hazard level. In addition, the effects of brine concentrations (0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, and 15%) on the chemical and bacteriological quality of brined and dried milkfish during sun-drying were evaluated. The results showed that the aerobic plate count (APC), coliform, water activity, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN), and histamine content values of the brined and dried milkfish samples decreased with increased brine concentrations, whereas those of salt content and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) increased with increasing brine concentrations. The milkfish samples prepared with 6% NaCl brine had better quality with respect to lower APC, TVBN, TBA, and histamine levels.

Highlights

Histamine is a biogenic amine in charge of histamine fish poisoning (HFP) or scombroid poisoning.Histamine fish poisoning is a food outbreak with allergy-like symptoms arising from ingesting mishandled scombroid fish that have high levels of histamine in their flesh [1]
For all 20 brined and dried milkfish samples collected from the four retail stores, the pH, moisture, water activity, salt content, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN), aerobic plate count (APC), coliform, and histamine ranged from 5.67 to 6.05, 38.27% to
Moisture, TVBN, APC, and histamine were w milkfish brined with a 6% NaCl addition hasdetected histamine, this study suggests that dried better in unsalted dried milkfish samples produced by sun-drying; dried milkfish producers should chemical and bacteriological quality

Summary

Introduction

Histamine is a biogenic amine in charge of histamine fish poisoning (HFP) or scombroid poisoning.Histamine fish poisoning is a food outbreak with allergy-like symptoms arising from ingesting mishandled scombroid fish that have high levels of histamine in their flesh [1]. Histamine is a biogenic amine in charge of histamine fish poisoning (HFP) or scombroid poisoning. Histamine is formed mainly through the decarboxylation of free histidine in fish muscles by histidine decarboxylases produced by a number of histamine-forming bacteria present in seafood [2]. There is compelling evidence to implicate that other factors, such as other biogenic amines, can potentiate histamine toxicity, as spoiled fish containing histamine tends to be more toxic than the equivalent amount of pure histamine that is ingested orally [1,2]. Putrescine and cadaverine were shown to enhance histamine toxicity when present in spoiled fish by inhibiting the intestinal histamine metabolizing enzyme, including diamine oxidase [1,2]

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