The connective tissues of fish.

'Gaping' is a phenomenon in which the connective tissues of fish fillets fail to hold the blocks of muscle together. Slits appear across the surface of the muscle which cannot then be mechanically skinned, or, in the case of smoked salmon fillets, sliced.
Seasonal increases in the gaping of salmon fillets coincide with a fall in the postmortem pH of the flesh, occurring in June-July.
Extensive gaping can be caused by fish entering rigor mortis at too high a temperature. In trout, this temperature is considerably higher than in gadoids, suggesting that gaping from high-temperature rigor may in practice be fairly rare in salmonids.
The thermal denaturation temperature ( T _D) of acid-soluble collagen isolated from the turbot farmed in warmed water does not differ significantly from that of the connective tissues of those reared at normal temperatures. This observation is discussed in relation to gaping.     

Quality changes of Nigerian traditionally processed freshwater fish species.

Traditionally smoked (TS), traditionally solar dried (TD), oven dried (OD), Ife solar dried (ISD), and fresh (FF) Clarim lazeru, Sarotherodon niloticus, Sarotherodon galileus, Tilapia zilli, and Hemichromis fmciatus were assessed for proximate composition, nutritive value and organoleptic changes.
Proximate composition of the fish treatment groups were similar, and this increased with decreasing moisture content.
Biological value (BV), true digestibility (TD), net protein utilization (NPU), protein efficiency ratio (PER), were greater than casein (P < 0.01), although they are not statistically different from each other.
From consumer-type taste panel, no statistically significant differences between fish species and organoleptic attributes scores could be discerned. However, a comparison between fish treatment and organoleptic attributes showed obvious differences. The fresh fish always scored highest while TD scored lowest.
The findings are discussed.     

Bioavailability to rats of iron from fortified grain amaranth flour

In this study, fortified and unfortified grain amaranth seed flour and FeSO₄ fortified casein diet as control were evaluated for their iron bioavailability. NaFeEDTA, ferrous fumarate, and FeSO₄-fortified grain amaranth were fed to Sprague Dawley weanling male rats. Iron intake, Hb Fe gain, Fe availability and binding capacity, serum iron, non-haem liver iron and relative biological value (RBV) were determined and values compared with FeSO₄-fortified casein control; all were improved greatly by fortification.
Relative biological values (RBV) were 0.40, 1.55, 1.75, 1.67 and 1.00 for animals receiving unfortified amaranth diet, those fed diet fortified with NaFeEDTA, ferrous fumarate, FeSO₄ and casein fortified with FeSO₄ respectively. RBV of the unfortified cereal was 40% of control suggesting perhaps low iron absorption from the amaranth cereal.
Based on the results of this study, amaranth cereal is ideal as a food vehicle for iron fortification. The iron fortificant of choice is ferrous fumarate.