Quality changes and experimental accelerated shelf‐life determination of ready‐to‐eat burgers made from striped catfish and salmon mince blend by thermal processing in retort pouches

Abstract

Ready-to-eat (RTE) fish burgers were developed from the minced striped catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus) and salmon (Salmo salar) mixed at the ratios of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100 by thermal processing in flexible pouches using a water spray retort at a temperature of 121.1oC for 15 min. The RTE fish burgers were stored at the temperatures of 25, 35 and 45°C for 3 months. It was found that the diameter, weight, L* value and cohesiveness of the RTE fish burger decreased, while the a* ​​and b* values, hardness, chewiness and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values of the RTE fish burger increased with longer storage time and higher storage temperatures. Total viable count, yeast and mold and Clostridium perfringens were below 10 CFU/g (detection limit) and coliform was below 3 MPN/g during 3 month-storage. The shelf-life prediction of the RTE fish burgers using Accelerated Shelf-life Test (ASLT) was conducted. The times of product decay were assessed at 3.92 and 1.40 months at the storage temperatures of 35 and 45°C, respectively. The TBA value was used as the shelf-life index of the RTE fish burgers. The calculated shelf-life of the RTE fish burgers stored at 20 and 25°C using Q10 technique were 13.1 and 7.8 months, respectively.