Title: The effect of delayed icing and gutting on the quality of freshwater arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus l.)

Four methods of handling Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) were studied. Samples itself was gutted. One group was gutted and iced immediately, a second group was ungutted and iced immediately, a third group was gutted and kept at 10°C for 18 hrs prior to icing, and the fourth were ungutted and kept at 10°C for 18 hrs prior to icing. Whole fish were stored in ice for eight days and then filleted. The changes in freshness were measured using sensory evaluation and microbiological methods. The Quality Index Method for whole fish showed that the fish from the two groups that were iced immediately were of better quality than the fish that were kept at 10°C for 18 hours prior to icing. Total bacterial counts on the flesh remained low for the first eight days and rose dramatically after filleting, indicating possible contamination of fillets during the process of filleting. On the17day of ice storage panellists detected off-flavours and off-odours indicating spoilage and this was the time too when the bacteria counts were very high. A good correlation was found between sensory evaluation and microbiological development in the fish with r: 0.86 and 0.83 respectively for ungutted, iced immediately and gutted, iced immediately.