Safety and Quality Issues in Fish Processing

Book excerpt: The processing and supply of fish products is a huge global business. Like other sectors of the food industry it depends on providing products which are both safe and which meet consumers' increasingly demanding requirements for quality. With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, Safety and quality issues in fish processing addresses these two central questions.Part one looks at ways of ensuring safe products. There are 3 chapters on the key issue of applying HACCP systems in an increasingly international supply chain. These are complemented by chapters on identifying and controlling key hazards from pathogens and allergens to heavy metals, parasites and toxins. Part two contains a range of contributions analysing various aspects of fish quality. Two introductory chapters consider how concepts such as quality, freshness and shelf-life may be defined. This chapter provides a context for chapters on modelling and predicting shelf-life, key enzymatic influences on postmortem fish colour, flavour and texture, and the impact of lipid oxidation on shelf-life. Part three of the book looks at ways of improving quality through the supply chain. An initial chapter sets the scene by looking at ways of creating an integrated quality chain. There are then a series of chapters on key processing and preservation technologies ranging from traditional fish drying to high pressure processing. These are followed by a discussion of methods of storage, particularly in maintaining the quality of frozen fish. Two final chapters complete the book by looking at fish byproducts and the issue of species identification in processed seafood.As authoritative as it is comprehensive, Safety and quality issues in fish processing is a standard work on defining, measuring and improving the safety and quality of fish products. - Addresses how to provide fish products which are safe and also meet consumers' increasingly demanding requirements for quality - Examines ways of ensuring safe products, from the application of HACCP systems in an international supply chain to the identification and control of hazards from pathogens, allergens, heavy metals, parasites and toxins - Outlines how to identify and control hazards, from pathogens and allergens to heavy metals, parasites and toxins