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Abstract Background To maintain the quality of frozen Atlantic salmon after thawing and highlight the potential for moving from air fright to boat for long‐distance export, a study was designed to investigate the effects of sub‐chilling before rapid freezing on the quality of thawed fillets. Atlantic salmon chilled on wet ice before filleting and freezing was used as a control for the experimental factor chilling, whereas fresh fillets were used for the frozen–thawed samples. Results The pre‐freezing chilling method interacted with the storage protocol and significantly affected the product. For fresh stored fillets, sub‐chilling improved the microbiological and textural stability and degradation of proteins. After 1 month of frozen storage, sub‐chilled fillets gave better color and textural properties, less adenosine triphosphate degradation and protein denaturation. In addition, sub‐chilled 4‐month‐frozen fillets also showed improved microbial stability compared to those initially chilled with ice before frozen storage. Quality was lost as a function of storage. Fresh fillets generally had higher bacterial counts, surface breaking force, firmness, hue and contents of inosine monophosphate, and lower drip loss and inosine (HxR) levels than those stored frozen–thawed. Moreover, 4‐month‐frozen fillets had higher HxR levels and lower psychrotrophic viable count growth than those that were frozen for 1 month. The time fillets were stored frozen did not profoundly affect their quality. Conclusion It is concluded that a frozen product might be competitive with a fresh product when sub‐chilling is performed before freezing, especially when including the environmental benefits of frozen export by boat rather than air freight. © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
Lerfall et al. (Thu,) studied this question.