3.1. Water retention and shelf-life assessment
Table 1 shows the results in vacuum-packed seabream fish fillets as affected by different treatments and refrigerated storage. Initially, drip loss was lower in the VIM treatment and higher in the VIM + HHP treatment, whereas the MC was not different from the other two treatments. During storage, there was a tendency toward increased drip loss. However, only the MC and VIM treatments were found to be different when comparing their initial and final values. These results are in line with those reported by Hurtado et al. (2000), who found decreased drip loss during the refrigerated storage of pressurized hake at 400 MPa. It is worth mentioning that no differences were observed in moisture content as a consequence of marination treatments and storage time (70.2%, 70.8%, and 69.2% for MC, VIM, and VIM + HHP, respectively). However, these values were lower than those reported for fresh fillets (Alasalvar et al., 2001). This can be attributed to the effect of marination, which leads to reduced water content. Marination can also explain why the WHC was slightly lower than that in other studies dealing with seabream (Campus et al., 2010; Garrido et al., 2016). The fact that all treatments were marinated may have resulted in a similar WHC at the beginning of the storage period (Table 1). However, the VIM + HHP treatment resulted in lower WHC than the other treatments after five or more days of storage. Similarly, as reported by Aubourg, Torres, et al. (2013), the expressible water content of Atlantic mackerel has been found to increase with HHP treatment. In seabream, Campus et al. (2010b) found that the WHC decreased with an increasing pressure (200, 300, and 400 MPa). Ramirez-Suarez & Morrissey (2006) reported that pressurized tuna resulted in a more “loose” gel structure, which facilitated the release of liquids. These effects have been attributed to denaturation changes in myofibril structure, with actin being mainly responsible for these changes. Campus et al. (2010) reported that high-pressure treatments inactivate degrading enzymes acting on proteins related to tissue integrity preservation and contribute to the maintenance of WHC. However, storage time was found to have no effect on WHC when studying the different treatments. Although the effects of sensory and textural properties will be discussed further, pressurization at 250 MPa for 6 min seems to have minimal effects on WHC and drip loss.
At the beginning of storage, MC fillets recorded lower pH values than VIM + HHP fillets (Table 1). The initial pH values of the marinated fillets at the beginning of storage (6.13‒6.25) were similar to those reported in previous studies using fresh seabream fillets (Garrido et al., 2016; Giannoglou et al., 2021). Giannoglou et al. (2021) also reported a slight increase (from 6.33 to 6.44) as a result of pressurization treatment (300 MPa for 5 min). The pH of the marinade was 2.6, suggesting that both the relatively short time of marination and vacuum impregnation resulted in the relatively poor diffusion of the marinade inside the seabream fillets. This is also supported by the lack of an effect at longer storage periods. In contrast, the pH was found to be steady in all treatments for up to 12 days of storage and then increased at the end of storage. The formation of trimethylamine and other basic volatiles by the action and metabolism of endogenous or microbial enzymes explains the increase in pH during storage (Olatunde & Benjakul, 2018). However, TVBN was unaffected by different treatments and storage times (Table 1). The initial TVB-N values were similar to those reported in the literature for seabream and other species (Erkan & Üretener, 2010; Garrido et al., 2016; Parlapani et al., 2015). Moreover, the amounts reached at the end of storage were below the limit of 30 mg N/100 g (EC, 2005). In fact, this parameter typically increases during the late stages of storage, making it suitable only as an acceptance/rejection criterion. It is well known that the addition of individual or mixtures of different organic acids, such as citric, ascorbic, and acetic, can serve as effective antimicrobials in fish (García-Soto et al., 2014; Mei et al., 2019). These findings suggest that minor degradation occurred in marinated fillets, which can be partly attributed to the protective effect of the lemon-vinegar marinade.
The effects of different treatments and storage times on microbial counts are shown in Table 2. A limit of 6 log CFU/g was reached for the MC and VIM treatments at the end of storage. Therefore, it appears that under the studied conditions, vacuum impregnation does not offer a technological advantage with regard to microbial growth. However, pressurization at 250 MPa caused a decrease in the TVC. This microbial reduction was also observed at different storage times when comparing different treatments. However, TVC was not completely inactivated and increased with storage time. These findings are in line with the reported decrease in TVC in mackerel and seabream fillets upon pressurization at 300 MPa for 5 min (de Alba et al., 2019; Giannoglou et al., 2021). Similarly, exposure to 200 MPa for 2 min was found to reduce aerobic psychrotrophic counts in salmon, cod, and mackerel species (Rode & Hovda, 2016). With regard to LAB, the initial low values were in agreement with those reported in other studies (Garrido et al., 2016; Giannoglou et al., 2021). Therefore, it is unclear whether pressurization at 250 MPa is an effective strategy for reducing LAB counts, as suggested by previous studies in the range of 200-300 MPa and for 5-10 min (Amanatidou et al., 2000; Giannoglou et al., 2021). Conversely, previous studies also reported the resistance of this microbial group to HHP treatment (250 MPa for 15 min) (Gómez-Estaca et al., 2018). Regardless of the treatment, the LAB counts remained unchanged during storage (Table 2). These results are in line with those of Giannoglou et al. (2021), who reported a more progressive and delayed increase in LAB counts in pressurized fillets than in TVC. The initial SPB counts were lower than those reported in other studies on seabream and other fish species (Carrascosa et al., 2015; Gómez-Estaca et al., 2018; Parlapani et al., 2015). Similar to LAB, the inactivation of SPB is difficult to ascertain because of its relatively low levels, which explains why no differences were observed in SPB counts between treatments for up to five days of storage. After this storage time, the VIM + HHP treatment recorded lower counts than the other treatments, which demonstrates the effectiveness of high pressures against SPB, in agreement with previous studies at pressures ≤250 MPa (Amanatidou et al., 2000; Gómez-Estaca et al., 2018). Similar to other studies, HHP treatment maintained SPB counts below the detection limit throughout storage (Gómez-Estaca et al., 2018). Therefore, the studied pressurization treatment (250 MPa, 6 min) offered good protection in front of different microbial groups and more specifically against SPB, which allowed for the extension of the shelf life of the marinated product for up to 16 days under the experimental conditions. However, vacuum impregnation does not offer an additional advantage in controlling microbial growth compared with conventional marination at atmospheric pressure.
In addition to microbial spoilage, the progression of oxidation may determine the shelf life of fish products. The results of oxidation, as measured by the content of lipid hydroperoxides and TBARS values, are shown in Table 1. The lipid hydroperoxide content was similar among treatments at all storage times. It can also be observed that the lipid hydroperoxide content showed a trend toward higher values with longer storage periods. However, only the fillets from the VIM + HHP treatment were found to be significantly different at the end of the storage period. It has been widely reported that HHP can promote oxidation, which has been attributed to cell membrane damage and the denaturation of heme proteins, leading to hemin release (Bou et al., 2019; Gómez-Estaca et al., 2018; Oliveira et al., 2017). Similar to lipid hydroperoxides, TBARS showed no differences among treatments at all storage times. However, TBARS values increased progressively with storage time, regardless of the treatment, and all recorded higher values than at the beginning of storage. However, the progression of lipid oxidation can be considered low when compared with other studies evaluating fresh and pressurized seabream fillets (Erkan & Üretener, 2010; Giannoglou et al., 2021). For instance, Erkan & Üretener (2010) who compared non-pressurized and pressurized seabream fillets at 250 MPa for 5 min at 3°C and 15°C reported higher TBARS values after 19 days of refrigerated storage (1.5–3.5 mg/kg) than in the present study. Giannoglou et al. (2021) found that fish exposed to 300 MPa for 5 min had lower values than unpressurised controls throughout the storage period. Rode & Hovda (2016) compared pressurization at 0, 200, and 500 MPa for different fish species. These authors reported that samples exposed to 500 MPa had higher TBARS values. However, the progression of lipid oxidation depended on the fish species and, in some cases, the pro-oxidant effect at 200 MPa was similar to that of the control. In this study, Espinosa et al. (2015) cooked and pressurized seabream fillets at 300 and 600 MPa for 5 min in a sauce containing olive oil and vinegar, among other ingredients, and compared the results. The TBARS values in this previous study are in line with our findings and increased with storage time; however, in most cases, the authors did not find significant differences between treatments. Among other factors, the partial inactivation of neutral lipases (5.4 ± 0.11, 6.1 ± 0.59, and 2.9 ± 0.87 U kg-1 for neutral lipase in MC, VIM, and VIM + HHP, respectively, and 2.2 ± 0.16, 2.3 ± 0.46, and 1.5 ± 0.46 U kg-1 sample for acid lipase in MC, VIM, and VIM + HHP, respectively) as a consequence of pressurization treatment may have reduced the release of free fatty acids, which are known to be prone to oxidation (Vázquez et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2019). In addition, it is worth mentioning that the marinade used in the current study contains lemon, since citric acid and ascorbic acid have well-known antioxidant properties (Mei et al., 2019). Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that in seabream fillets, marination together with exposure to relatively mild pressurization treatments provided sufficient protection against the progression of lipid oxidation, with microbial growth being the main factor determining shelf life.
3.2. Instrumental color, instrumental texture, and sensory analysis
The instrumental colors of the fish fillets are shown in Table 3. The lightness, ranging from 52 to 78, was higher than that in previous studies using seabream fillets, which ranged from 35 to 45 (Andrés-Bello et al., 2015; Giannoglou et al., 2021). This increase can be attributed to the marinade cooking effect. Moreover, the comparison between treatments showed that pressurization (250 MPa, 6 min) increased the lightness, an effect that was maintained throughout the storage period. This finding agrees with other studies that have attributed this whitening effect to protein changes, leading to an increase in light reflection (Giannoglou et al., 2021; Oliveira et al., 2017). However, mackerel pressurized at 150 MPa for 2.5 min or coho salmon pressurized at 200 MPa for 30 s had no effect on lightness after processing (Aubourg, Rodríguez, et al., 2013; Aubourg, Torres, et al., 2013). Lightness was unaffected during the storage of non-pressurized samples (MC, VIM), whereas VIM + HHP samples showed a tendency toward darker colors. It is unclear whether this effect was caused by the browning of heme pigments and the progression of lipid oxidation and/or a lower water content with longer storage times. With regard to redness, the recorded values at the beginning of storage were lower than those reported for fresh seabream fillets (Andrés-Bello et al., 2015; Oliveira et al., 2017). In addition, VIM + HHP treatment resulted in fillets that were more reddish than VIM, whereas MC showed intermediate values. Conversely, various studies have reported that HHP causes a decrease in redness, particularly at an elevated pressure (Erkan & Üretener, 2010; Giannoglou et al., 2021; Y. M. Zhao et al., 2019). Therefore, it is possible that under these experimental conditions, a marinade may be more effective than HHP in decreasing redness. It is also worth mentioning that fish contain relatively high amounts of hemoglobin, which has been shown to be relatively stable at pressures below 300 MPa (Bou et al., 2019). Upon storage, redness increased in all treatments, and at the end of the storage period, no differences were observed between treatments. Some unclear behaviors in redness values have also been reported as a result of pressurization and vacuum impregnation treatments (Andrés-Bello et al., 2015; Erkan & Üretener, 2010). As the color red is supposed to be mainly determined by heme proteins, this increase in redness may be attributed to the combination of vacuum and the reducing capacity of certain compounds, such as ascorbic acid, from the marinade. The yellowness values of the MC and VIM samples were similar to those reported for seabream fillets (Andrés-Bello et al., 2015; Erkan & Üretener, 2010). Andrés-Bello et al. (2015) reported that vacuum impregnation with nisin results in a decrease in yellowness. Hence, it is possible that under our experimental conditions, marination may have counteracted this effect. However, pressurization led to an increased yellowness in the product, which was maintained throughout the storage period (Table 3). This effect has been previously described in various fish species (Erkan & Üretener, 2010; Oliveira et al., 2017; Y. M. Zhao et al., 2019). In addition, there was a tendency for higher yellowness values with storage time, regardless of the treatment, which is also in agreement with similar studies (Erkan & Üretener, 2010). An increase in this parameter is often related to the progression of lipid oxidation (Aubourg, Rodríguez, et al., 2013).
The instrumental textures are shown in Table 3, which indicate that hardness was unaffected by the different treatments at almost all storage times. Only after five days of storage, the VIM + HHP treatment resulted in a harder texture than the other treatments. These findings are in line with those reported in previous studies, in which the application of low-pressure treatments (200 MPa for 30 s) in coho salmon was evaluated (Aubourg, Rodríguez, et al., 2013). However, the application of HHP normally results in an increase in hardness (Giannoglou et al., 2021; Oliveira et al., 2017; Y. M. Zhao et al., 2019). Nonetheless, Oliveira et al. (2017) found that the effects of HHP are dependent on the process parameters, fish species, and methodology used. Therefore, it seems that, in our study, HHP caused minimal changes in proteins. During storage, there is a tendency toward a softer texture, which can be attributed to proteolysis. This effect was not observed in the pressurized samples, suggesting that the proteases were inactivated (Campus et al., 2010). Similar findings were obtained for adhesiveness, with minimal changes observed between the different treatments after 1, 9, and 12 days of storage. However, pressurized treatments caused lower adhesiveness after five and 16 days of storage. This parameter also seemed to increase with longer storage times in the MC and VIM samples, whereas the VIM + HHP samples remained unchanged when comparing the values at the beginning and end of the storage period. Cohesiveness was found to behave similarly to adhesiveness, and thus, minimal changes occurred with exposure to the different treatments and their storage. Hence, it can be assumed that different treatments caused minimal changes in these two parameters. Springiness was affected by pressurization for all storage times (Table 3). Therefore, this parameter may better reflect protein changes caused by HHP. In addition, this parameter remained unchanged with storage time in the VIM + HHP samples, whereas lower values were observed in the MC and VIM samples at the end of the storage period. With regards to gumminess, no changes were observed in the different treatments. In addition, the pressurized samples (VIM + HHP) remained unchanged with storage, whereas the MC and VIM samples were found to decrease. The fact that springiness and gumminess remained unchanged in pressurized samples, while there was a trend toward lower values in the MC and VIM samples, may be attributed to the progression of proteolysis and its inactivation by HHP (Campus et al., 2010). Therefore, exposure to HHP had minimal or no effects on seabream fillets, except for springiness, but may have the advantage of preserving textural properties during storage by minimizing the effect of proteolysis.
The sensory analyses of cooked seabream fish fillets are shown in Table 4. Apart from odors imbued by the lemon and vinegar, the characteristic aroma of the fish fillets was unaffected by the treatments. As the marinade contains lemon juice and vinegar, this explains the higher scores in the treatments that involved the marination step (MC, VIM, and VIM + HHP). However, the lemon odor in the MC was not different from that in the unprocessed control sample, suggesting that vacuum impregnation was more efficient in the penetration of the aroma into the tissue. The same trend was observed for vinegar aroma. Unprocessed control samples also showed a lower amount of exudate, although this was only significantly different from the VIM + HHP treatment. High pressures induce protein unfolding and denaturation, which may explain the higher release of exudates. In general, WHC is related to the compression of fibers, and protein denaturation and HHP may alter the conformation of proteins (Campus et al., 2010; Oliveira et al., 2017). These effects may have been exacerbated in the cooked samples, which may explain the increased amount of exudate. Pressurized samples also showed a higher presence of fat droplets when compared with the unprocessed control sample and MC, which may be indicative of structural damage. However, the turbidity of the exudate in the VIM + HHP and unprocessed control samples was higher than that in the MC and VIM samples, whereas no differences were observed in the color of the exudate or the presence of white spots. In general, the appearance of the cooked product (e.g., white spots, color intensity, laminar structure) was unaffected by the treatments (Table 4). Flavor attributes showed similar results, and the overall flavor intensity, sardine flavor, butter flavor, and bitter flavor were similar between the treatments and the unprocessed control sample. Similar to aroma, sour and lemon flavors were affected by the marinade. The unprocessed control samples recorded the lowest scores, followed by MC, VIM, and VIM + HHP. This finding reinforces the hypothesis of the higher penetration of lemon aroma compounds and acetic acid into fish tissues after vacuum impregnation. In addition, pressurization may enhance the perception of these flavor compounds. Thus, this treatment may also reduce the marination time and improve the sensory characteristics. Firmness, crumbliness, and adherence to teeth were unaffected by the treatments, suggesting that mild pressurization treatments (250 MPa, 6 min) did not substantially change the sensory properties of cooked fillets, which is in agreement with previous studies comparing the effects of 0, 300, and 600 MPa on firmness (Espinosa et al., 2015). The same authors reported that juiciness decreased with pressure; however, in this study, VIM + HHP and unprocessed control fillets were found to be higher. The positive effect of HHP may be related to enhanced perception of lemon and sour attributes. However, marination seems to increase pastiness, which can be attributed to the effect of the marinade rather than exposure to high pressure.