Off-flavor in fish

Abstract EN

Factors that cause off-flavor in fish are reviewed.

Literature indicated that off-flavor develops due to ingesting certain feed or pollutants by the fish.

Off-flavors are attributed to bacterial spoilage in iced fish, while lipid oxidation is the major cause during frozen storage.

Numerous volatile compounds have been identified in spoiled fish.

The role of most of these compounds in producing off-flavor are not known because most of the research concentrated on evaluating for quality control purpose and toward developing a method for detecting spoilage.

However, a few researchers were successful in determining which compounds producing a given off-odor.

The role of TMA in fish odor, sulphur compounds in sulphidy odor, esters in a fruity odor and pyrazines in a potato odor were established.

Very little information is available on what compounds are responsible for rancid flavor in fish.

Heptcis-4-enal was identified as being primarily responsible for what is known as cold-storage odor in white fish.