April 21. 2005New evidence presented that caffeic acid, ferulic acid and chlorogenic acid prevents oxidation in minced horse mackerel.
Researchers at Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas (IIM) of the CSIC organisation in Spain works closely together with UNILEVER, UK, in the SEAFOODplus project LIPIDTEXT. Their target is to develop model systems to be used in chilled fish to test and understand the antioxidant activity of natural phenolic compounds for inhibiting lipid oxidation. The validity of these model systems will be tested for predicting activity of phenolic antioxidants in frozen fish. Further, the effect of phenolic antioxidants on protein changes in frozen fish, water retention and solubility will also be tested.
The results obtained have demonstrated that it was possible to perform antioxidant tests using refrigerated minced horse mackerel. Oxidation measured as peroxide values, TBA and by sensory assessment clearly demonstrated an inhibition of oxidation in samples treated with the different well-recognized natural antioxidants caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and chlorogenic acid against controls. The order of efficiency is illustrated in the figure below. These results indicate that natural antioxidants could have a great potential for inhibiting oxidation in commercial products. Further studies will be performed to confirm these promising data and to make it possible to use the natural antioxidants in regular seafood. Other results have demonstrated that the order of efficiency found in refrigerated fish is valid also for frozen fish.
