The expressible fluid of fish fillets. VIII.—cell damage in slow freezing

✍ Scribed by R. M. Love

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1958
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 417 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.2740090502

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The action of intercellular ice on muscle cells was studied by means of the deoxyribose nucleic acid method in fish fillets frozen at different speeds. It was found that there was a zone of minimum damage at a freezing time of about 115 minutes, the most rapid freezing time at which all ice was able to form in the intercellular spaces. Since the ice masses were relatively small (little bigger than the muscle cells) they did not deform or damage the cells to any great extent. With slower freezing, cell damage was found to increase to a maximum value at 200–500 minutes (‘Peak C’), and the manner by which this was brought about is discussed; thereafter it decreased again. It was also found that in very slow freezing the strong salt solutions created by the freezing out of water from the weakly saline interstitial fluids exercised considerable solvent effects on the fibres, without actually breaking them open. The concentration of protein in the interstitial fluid tended therefore to increase in very slow freezing (freezing time about 750 minutes).