Fish Microbiology and Quality Assurance

Unit 7 - Sanitation and microbiological quality

7.1. Indices of fish sanitary quality
Quality of the fish refers to wholesomeness of fish making it suitable for human consumption. Quality depends and determined by physical, chemical, organoleptic and microbiological aspects in food. Thus, the quality of a product includes factors such as intrinsic characters, nutritive value, degree of spoilage, damage to the product, deterioration during processing, storage and distribution, presence of substances hazardous to health, aesthetic aspects etc. Therefore, quality means all that attributes which consciously or unconsciously the consumer wants it to be present in food. The decision of what constitutes the quality rests ultimately with the consumers.