Microbiological studies on salted fish stored at low temperature, 1: Chemical and microbial changes of salted fish during storage.

Fish muscle homogenates with NaCl (5 or 15%) and those without NaCl were stored at 0° and 10°C. During the storage, the changes in viable counts, trimethylamine (TMA) and total volatile base (TVB) concentrations, 2-thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values, concen-trations of free amino acids, pH, Eh and water contents were observed. All the changes observed at 0°C were much smaller and slower than at 10°C. The most significant differences between the homogenates with NaCl and those without NaCl were found in respect to the TMA concentration;in the presence of more than 5% NaCl the TMA concentration did not exceed the threshold value of spoilage, whereas in the absence of NaCl it exceeded the threshold value within a short time.