Inhibition of Formation of Free Fatty Acids in Cod Liver with Sodium Hypochlorite Solution (Javex)

Abstract

Inexpensive active chlorine from commercially available Javex has been investigated for the preservation of cod livers at room temperature. Both homogenized and chopped liver samples were treated with preservative solution containing active chlorine concentrations of from 0.01 to 1.35%. After 7 days the formation of free fatty acids in cod livers by hydrolysis of lipids was inhibited by as much as 82 and 72%, respectively, for homogenized and chopped livers. Autolysis was effectively reduced by increasing the concentration of active chlorine, but accelerated markedly after a 10-day storage period. The peroxide value increased slowly in the liver treated with active chlorine solution (0.79%) from 0 to 3.2 meq/kg in a 7-day period and then reached 6.0 after 12 days of storage. About one-half of vitamin A content in the livers was destroyed during a 7-day treatment, but only 24% of vitamin D was lost. Since synthetic vitamin A can be cheaply added to the oil, these results show that active chlorine can be used as a cheap preservative in the fish liver industry, and provide a basis for the development of multiple component preservatives for livers.