Premortem Stress and Postmortem Biochemical Changes in Skipjack Tuna and Their Relation to Quality of the Canned Product

SUMMARY– Live skipjack were caught, brought to shoreside and held in tanks 24–48 hr. At this time some were exercised to simulate stress during commercial capture, sacrificed, held at 74 or 32°F for 6 hr, sampled for chemical analyses, then canned. Unstressed (rested) skipjack were treated similarly. Some autolytic degradation products post‐mortem were measured and the differences noted. Organoleptic evaluation was made on canned fish from the various treatment groups. While there were differences in various organoleptic parameters among the groups subjected to different treatments, there was no overwhelming evidence connecting stress or temperature of holding to quality in the canned product.