Effect of Fish Gelatin Coating Enriched with Oregano Essential Oil on the Quality of Refrigerated Rainbow Trout Fillet

In the present study, the effect of fish gelatin coating (FG; 4%, w/v) containing oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) essential oil (OEO; 1.2% w/v) on shelf-life extension of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fillet stored under refrigerated storage (4 ± 1ºC) was investigated. The control and the treated fish samples were analyzed periodically for chemical (pH; total volatile basic nitrogen, TVB-N; peroxide value, PV; thiobarbituric acid, TBA) and microbiological (total viable count, TVC; psychrotrophic count) characteristics. The FG + OEO treatment produced significantly lower (p < 0.05) TVB-N values as compared to control and FG-coated samples after Day 6 and until the end of the storage period. The TBA values remained low and were found to fluctuate during storage. Results showed that TVC exceeded 6 log CFU g−1 on Day 8 of storage for control and FG-coated samples and Day 12 for samples coated with FG + OEO. The reduction of 1.05 and 0.83 log CFU g−1 of psychrotrophic counts was achieved by FG + OEO coating in trout fillet (p < 0.05) as compared with control and FG-coated samples, respectively. Therefore, the incorporation of OEO into FG coating may be a promising method of maintaining the storage quality of the rainbow trout fillet stored at refrigerated temperature.