Optimisation of frozen pelagics quality: Mackerel as a case study

Today herring and mackerel are often frozen either on board or immediately after landing and stored frozen for long period of time before entering the production chain. However, frozen storage leads to a significant loss in fish quality due to oxidation of the long chain omega-3 fatty acids. These quality changes result in significant loss for fish processing industries. However, how these changes correlate with factors related to the “post-frozen storage” period are not documented. Therefore the aims of this project are:

• to correlate the raw material history, composition and quality with the quality loss observed during frozen storage

• to monitor the frozen storage conditions in pelagics until they enter the production

• to identify critical points in the entire chain and propose strategies to prevent quality loss.