Frontiers in Marine Science (Jun 2014)
Effect of different types of coatings on texture and nutritional properties of canned Portuguese sardines (<i>Sardina pilchardus</i>)
Abstract
Canned foods have a long history of success and are likely to remain popular for the foreseeable future owing to their convenience, long shelf life and economy. Interest in fish consumption has increased in recent years due to the wide range of its health benefits. In addition to fresh product, canned fish enables a delayed consumption of this appreciated kind of food. Among the different types of fish, in Portugal, the most used in canning manufacture are sardines, tuna, anchovies, mackerels. Vegetable oils and tomato sauce are usually adopted as coatings (liquid medium). In fact, oil has a preserving effect and contributes to make the product more palatable. Its protective action lies in the ability to insulate products from air, rather than having an active bacteriostatic or bactericidal action. Among the different types of coatings the most commonly used in canning are: olive oil, seed oils and different sauces, such as tomato sauce. Tomato sauce has also vegetable oil on its formulation. The amount of coating substance can affect the nutritional composition as well as texture properties of the sardines. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of different types of coatings on texture and nutritional properties of whole, skinless and boneless canned Portuguese Sardines (Sardina pilchardus). An experimental investigation was carried out to assess the protein, lipid, carbohydrates and ash content, texture and colour profile of canned sardine with different kinds of coatings: olive oil, sunflower oil and tomato sauce. The obtained results showed that protein and carbohydrates content were not significantly influenced by the coating used, varying between 5%-8% and13%-18%, respectively. For the moisture content it was found that the samples with tomato sauce were 2.2-fold higher than the samples with sunflower oil, and 1.3-fold higher than the samples with olive oil, independently of being whole, skinless or boneless sardine. As expected, the higher lipid content was found in samples with olive oil and sunflower oil, 3.3-fold higher than tomato sauce samples. Texture results showed that whole sardine samples yield the highest hardness values. It can be concluded that lipid content and moisture were greatly influenced by the type of coated added. On the contrary, texture parameter was influenced by the type of product: whole, skinless or boneless sardines.
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