THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT COOLING TECHNIQUES ON THE ...

Semwanga6CONCLUSIONThe study showed that skinning of redfish fillets contributed to a longer shelf life and that inprocesscooling of skinless fillets did not enhance freshness nor shelf life of the product. CBCtreatment did not delay spoilage of redfish fillets despite the fact that this cooling techniqueled to the lowest product temperature. The shorter shelf life was caused by the highestmicrobial contamination due to the presence of the skin on the fillets. CBC treatment of fattyskin-on fillets apparently requires a slurry ice pre-cooling step prior to CBC to reducefreezing damages and oxidative flesh deterioration in the superchilled state as well asdeskinning of fillets before packaging.Despite the insignificant salt uptake observed in fillets pre-cooled in slurry ice, it contributedto a faster growth of specific spoilage organisms, particularly the TMA producers, H 2 S-producing bacteria and P. phosphoreum. The low counts (