Relationship Between Water Migration and Quality Changes of Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares) During Storage at 0°C and 4°C by LF-NMR

This study investigated postmortem changes of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and water migration upon storage at 0 degrees C and 4 degrees C as determined by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR H-1). It clearly showed that with increasing storage time, sensory scores and physical evaluations (hardness, chewiness), proton density of the water, and moisture content decreased, while total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), K value, aerobic plate counts (APCs), and psychrotrophic bacterial counts increased. The results of LF-NMR showed that T-21 (trapped water) had extremely significant correlations with sensory evaluation, texture profile analysis, TVB-N, K value, APC, and psychrotrophic bacteria (p < 0.01) and established multiple linear regression. It was concluded that the LF-NMR was an important technique to evaluate storage time and temperature of yellowfin tuna's quality in terms of water migration during low-temperature storage.