The present status of radiation preservation of food products—fish

Abstract

The sterilization of the commoner varieties of sea foods by irradiation requires doses which almost invariably produce undersirable and unacceptable organoleptic changes in these products. It seems unlikely, therefore, that this method can at present compete commercially with the more conventional preservation processes. Recent work, particularly in the U.S.A., suggests that pasteurizing doses either alone or along with a variety of “combination” treatments, could give satisfactory products with greatly enhanced shelf life particularly at chill temperatures. Of over 20 species of fish tested, cod and halibut stand up best organoleptically. In fatty fish, such as herring, rancidity of the oil is an added hazard, while in other species like salmon, the pigment is bleached or in white fleshed species, brown discolorations appear. On the other hand, blached oysters and cooked crab and shrimp meats stand up well with great improvements in their keeping qualities. Provided the more obvious defects in the present process can be overcome, it seems likely that this new technique could revolutionize the present methods of marketing unfrozen fish to inland populations far from the ports.