SEASONAL IMPACT OF HARVESTING ON THE FRESHNESS AND QUALITY OF EUROPEAN SEABASS MEAT (Dicentrarchus labrax Linnaeus, 1758)

Abstract

The main goal and task of this research is to determine the most suitable and effective method of stunning fish during harvesting which affects the maintenance of freshness and quality of fresh market size seabass meat, and also to determine in which season during storage seabass maintains better quality and freshness of meat. Fish harvesting and stunning were performed twice on the fish farm in the Bay of Neum, during summer and winter period. The fish were stunned using two methods, stunning in ice/sea water mixture (group I) and stunning with anaesthetic (group II). Values of temperature and pH of fish meat and lactate in the blood were also recorded during the fieldwork, then each fish was transported to Sarajevo for further analysis. In the laboratory were conducted the following methods and analysis: measured length and weight for each fish; the chemical composition of fish meat was determined; physico-chemical characteristics of meat; values of the Quality Index Method (QIM) were determined. The results of temperature and pH of meat and content of lactate in the blood don't show statistically significant differences between two groups. QIM results don't show statistically significant differences between two groups within one season, but QIM results show statistically significant differences when comparing summer and winter period, and on the basis of these results it is concluded that seabass during winter storage maintains a longer period of time better quality and freshness than in summer period.