Abstract
Pacific saury, Cololabis saira kwamaegi, is a traditional local food of the Eastern sea area centering around Pohang. It is well-recognized as being both tasty and nutritious. Nevertheless, bacterial contamination, excessive dryness, and compositional changes have made it edible only during the winter months. Therefore, to improve its storage, this study examined the effects of storage material, type, temperature, and duration on compositional changes in kwamaegi. The studied samples were kwamaegis that had been dried naturally for 15 days. The storage materials included an A-film, a self-developed multi-film made of polyethylene, polyamide, EVOH, and polyethylene; as well as a B-film made of polyethylene, nylon, polyethylene, nylon and polyethylene. The B films were used after pressing and laminating. The storage types included one whole fish(1G), or 2 divided fish(2G), to increase eating convenience. The 2G type was the muscle portion divided vertically after discarding the jowl, skin, and internal organs. The storage temperatures were $0^{\circ}C$, $-15^{\circ}C$, and $-30^{\circ}C$, and the storage durations were 2, 4, and 6 months. Pathogenic bacteria and rheology were measured to observe general compositional changes. The whole kwamaegi showed a total cell number of $1,565{\pm}112$ CFU/100 g flesh, while the divided Kwamaegi showed significantly greater bacterial numbers at $2,031{\pm}145$ CFU/100 g flesh. Psychrophils and halophils increased significantly while coliform were not found; the number of mesophils also increased, but not significantly. There were no significant cell number variations between the A-film and B-film. At $0^{\circ}C$, both the A-and B-films resulted in cell numbers of $115{\sim}212$ CFU/100 g flesh, revealing just $7.3{\sim}10.4%$ of the initial storage levels. Overall, there were no significant differences between the storage materials. Generally, as the storage temperature and duration increased, the moisture content of the kwamaegi decreased. Also, as storage duration and temperature increased, crude protein and crude lipid contents increased; in addition, they increased proportionally as the moisture content of the fish decreased. There were no significant differences in crude ash content with respect to the storage materials, storage temperatures, or storage durations. Finally, there were no significant differences between the kwamaegi samples naturally dried for 15 days and those stored in the B-film vacuum storage for 6 months for strength, hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, gumminess, and water activity.
