Development of a Quality Index Method (QIM) for Maatjes Herring Stored in Air and Under Modified Atmosphere

The aim of the study was to develop a Quality Index Method (QIM) scheme for maatjes herring stored in air and under a modified atmosphere at 4°C and 10°C. The attributes included in this new scheme are: appearance of skin side and bone side, color of the blood, odor (rancidity and other), taste (rancidity and other), aftertaste and texture. The QIM scheme developed proved to be potentially useful in evaluating and defining the quality of maatjes herring stored in air and under modified atmosphere. Since natural variations and processing of maatjes herring limit the use of the QIM scheme, the scheme must be specified taking the product-specific differences and storage conditions more in detail into account. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.] Ulrike Lyhs, Vet Med, is affiliated with the Department of Food Technology/Meat Technology, University of Helsinki, Finland. Rian Schelvis-Smit, MSc, is affiliated with the Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research (RIVO) BV, P.O. Box 68, 1970 AB Ijmuiden, The Netherlands (E-mail: [email protected]). Address correspondence to: Ulrike Lyhs, Department of Food Technology/Meat Technology, Faculty of Forestry and Agriculture, P.O. Box 66, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland (E-mail: [email protected]). The authors wish to thank Camiel Aalberts, Kerst Brünner, Martin Gouda, Karin Kruijt-Kloosterboer, Alwin Kruijt, Yvonne Peters, Mieke van der Putte, Afke Stein, Martine Veldman and Paul Wezenbeek for their excellent assistance. The practical assistance from Anneke Versluijs and Emilia Martinsdottir is gratefully acknowledged. This research has been supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community program “Quality of Life” under the contract number QLK5-CT-200152012. Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology, Vol. 14(2) 2005 Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JAFPT © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J030v14n02_06 63