Analysis of sulfites in crustaceans

  • António Pedro Dias Dinis Coelho e Sousa (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Due to the importance of maintaining the products with the best food safety and quality at the point of sale, it is necessary to use preservatives that must be properly selected and monitored to guarantee compliance with the defined legal limits. The developed project had as its principal objective to evaluate some tendencies in the results obtained, considering different storage and sample preparation methodologies. It is intended to evaluate how sulfite concentration evolves over time, in fresh aquaculture shrimp and after freezing, with different defrost methods. Also, brief research was done on some alternatives of sulfites for preserving this type of food. Regarding sulphite legislation, for the cooked shrimps, concentrations of residual sulfites have a maximum of 50 mg of SO2/ kg of edible part. The maximum level for Penaeidae, Solinoceridae and Aristaeidae family up to 80 units is 135 mg of SO2/ kg of edible parts. For these families, between 80 to 120 units, the maximum level presented is 180 mg of SO2/ kg of the edible part, and above 120 units, the level is 270 mg of SO2/ kg of the edible part (Regulation (EU) n. 1129/2011). Through the development of the study, it was possible to visualize that for fresh shrimps, over the lifetime, the tendency is to increase the residual sulfite concentration, and in this study, there was an increase with an average of 50%. Regarding frozen products, the tendency is to decrease, with an average of 20% and stabilise the residual sulfite concentration over time since sulfite concentration is not time dependent. As for the different analysis methodologies used in the frozen samples, there were no significant differences.
Date of Award27 Jul 2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorSara Margarida Bernardes Queda da Silva (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Crustaceans
  • Sulfites
  • Preservation
  • Shrimps
  • Food safety

Designation

  • Mestrado em Engenharia Alimentar

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