The Quality Characteristics of Commercial Gwamegi by Product Types

This study was performed to investigate the physical, chemical and microbial characteristics of Gwamegi to provide basic data for the standardization of marine processed foods and for the improvement of the quality of commercial Gwamegi. The acid values of commercial Gwamegi were 5.8, 5.3 and 5.2 mg KOH/g for fillet type (F-type), “two divide” type (T-type) and whole type (W-type), respectively, and the peroxide values were 51.6, 51.5 and 53.2 meq/kg for each. There was a positive correlation between the acid value and the peroxide value (r=0.555) at confidence intervals (CI) of 99%. Trimethylamine (TMA) content of F-type, T-type and W-type products were 2.9, 2.6 and 3.6 mg%, respectively, while volatile basic nitrogen (VBN) contents were 22.4, 21.5 and 21.8 mg%. There was a strong positive correlation between TMA and VBN (r=0.961) at a CI of 99%. The histamine content was detected to be as much as 122 mg/kg, with about 36 % of the samples exceeding the CODEX criteria for histamine of 100 mg/kg. The total microbial count of 4 products exceeded 5 Log CFU/g and coliform group of 11 products exceeded the criteria of less than 1 Log CFU/g. Staphylococcus aureus in 27% of the samples exceeded the criteria of less than 2 Log CFU/g.