Effect of Fillet Thickness on Quality and Shelf Life of Gravlax Salmon

Abstract

Gravlax Atlantic salmon is a raw fish product typically stored at chill temperatures that will go through no further heat processing before consumption. Bacterial spoilage can reduce shelf life while pathogens can represent a serious hazard for susceptible consumers. This experiment was conducted to provide an estimate of the shelf life of 2 thicknesses of gravlax salmon stored at 4°C by monitoring, pH, water activity (aw), salt levels over a 21 day period and microbial numbers (TPC) over 41 days. Total plate counts for both the 1cm and 2cm thicknesses remained at less than 104 CFU/g at the conclusion of the experiment on day 41. Salt levels were 11.41% and 6.85% and water activity values 0.83 and 0.85 for 1 and 2 cm thicknesses respectively. From these figures it was concluded that both the 1 cm and 2 cm thicknesses of gravlax treated Atlantic salmon stored at 4°C have shelf- lives longer than 41 days;