Effects of muscle types and cooling on discoloration of canned skipjack

Abstract

The effects of muscle types and their cooling conditions on browning in the packing media solution of canned skipjack were investigated. Cooling conditions of dorsal muscle influenced browning of water fraction in packing media solution mainly due to amino-carbonyl reaction associated with non-protein nitrogen and sugars. For ventral muscle, brown color formation of oil as well as water fractions occurred due to degradation of amino nitrogen and non-protein nitrogen, and lipid oxidation. The separation of whole meat into dorsal and ventral muscles after precooking, cooling at different appropriate temperatures (≤10°C for 16 h and -15°C for 3 h for dorsal and ventral muscles, respectively), and packing with lower ventral muscle content (≤20%) retarded browning of packing media solution in canned skipjack.