The Killing of Quality: The Impact of Slaughter Procedures on Fish Flesh

Live fish have a certain level of intrinsic 'quality'. From the point of slaughter onwards this quality cannot be improved, but tends to be lost due to the natural degradation of the flesh. Slaughter and the procedures immediately prior to this point can have a large impact on the intrinsic 'quality' attributes and these impacts are all negative. By minimising the levels of stress and activity at slaughter it is possible to keep the fish closer to their intrinsic levels of 'quality', but highly stressful slaughter procedures result in a big reduction in 'quality' at an early stage in the processing line. Improvements in slaughter methods give the chance of im­ proving final product quality.