Alginate–calcium coating incorporating nisin and EDTA maintains the quality of fresh northern snakehead (Channa argus) fillets stored at 4 °C

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial packaging is a novel food packaging technology for controlling the growth of food‐borne pathogens or spoilage bacteria in ready‐to‐eat food products. Fresh fish are highly perishable foodstuffs and are extremely susceptible to microbial activities. An alginate–calcium coating incorporating nisin and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was used as an antimicrobial packaging to maintain the quality of northern snakehead (Channa argus) at refrigeration temperature (4 ± 1 °C). Northern snakehead fillets were left untreated (CK), or were treated with 1000 IU mL^?1 nisin and 150 µg mL^?1 EDTA (T1), alginate–calcium coating (T2), or alginate–calcium coating incorporating 1000 IU mL^?1 nisin and 150 µg mL^?1 EDTA (T3). RESULTS: All treatments retarded the decay of the fish fillets. T1 more efficiently inhibited the growth of total viable mesophilic bacteria (P < 0.05) and total psychrophilic bacteria (P > 0.05) than did T2 or T3. Coating treatments predominantly reduced chemical spoilage, reflected in total volatile base nitrogen (P > 0.05), trimethylamine (P > 0.05), pH (P < 0.05), and thiobarbituric acid (P < 0.05), retarded water loss (P < 0.05), and increased the overall sensory scores of fish fillets (P < 0.05) compared with those of T1. There was no significant difference between the coating treatments T2 and T3 (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Alginate–calcium coating treatments efficiently enhanced the quality of northern snakehead fillets during storage. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry