Impacto dos fatores de descongelação do atum na qualidade final do produto em conserva

Abstract

Food safety assumes today a role of utmost importance in order to ensure that food reaches the final consumer in good condition and safe. The tinned fish company Ramirez and Cª and sons, S.A., go through several stages, from the production, processing, transport to the retailer, including the final consumer. The goal of the investigation described in this report, was to study the impact of specific factors on the quality of the product during the defrosting process of tuna and sardines. Besides this study, other activities developed during the curricular internship in the canned fish factory located in Lavra, are also described. Parameters such time, temperature, humidity, speed and air’s flow, dripping, percentage of water and histamine content in fish, were identified and studied during defrosting, in order to understand the impact that each one of them have in the quality of the final product. It was concluded that regardless of the percentage of lost water from the tuna samples analyzed during the defrosting process and in several critical situations simulated in the form of company to create a less favorable situation, the sensory quality of the fish is not affected. Since the air flow speed in the thawing chamber is affected in various places of the room, changing the consistency of the product, which makes the handling of the production line workers causing problems in filling of the can. Regarding the histamine results obtained, fish thawed and stored under refrigeration temperatures, and fish thawed and kept for a period of time at room temperature, showed values of histamine under the regulated limits. It does not constitute a threat to consumer’s heath.

Date of Award	22 Jun 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria de Fátima da Silva Barata (Supervisor) & Cristina L. M. Silva (Co-Supervisor)