Relation of quality and sensory perception with changes in free amino acids of thawed seabream (Sparus aurata)

This study aimed to investigate how the freshness before frozen storage affect the quality and sensory characteristics of seabream in different commercial presentations and to correlate the findings with free amino acids composition. The fish were slaughtered, allocated to three processing treatments (whole, gutted and filleted) and stored at refrigeration (0 +/- 1 degrees C) for different times (5, 9, 11 and 18 days) before one-month frozen storage ( - 30 degrees C). After this time, physicochemical (pH, TVB-N, TBARS and free amino acids), bacterial count and sensory evaluation (Tony Index & Quality Descriptive Analysis -QDA-) were studied. Significant differences were found among treatments over time for TVB-N, TBARS and bacterial growth. The quality index (Tony) exhibited a gradual decrease. QDA showed that fillets had the lowest assessment. Free amino acids contents varied significantly during frozen storage with a particular behavior that depended on the previous treatment applied and the fish freshness degree (elapsed days before frozen).