Fishery Product Safety and Quality

The desirable nutritional qualities make fish and fishery products as an ideal source of animal protein requirements of fish eating population. Several microorganisms responsible for spoilage and also human pathogens associated with foods affect the safety and quality of food meant for human consumption. At the same time the highly perishable nature of fresh fish calls for application of preservation techniques to maintain its keeping quality. Food quality and safety issues continue to dominate the press, with most food companies spending large amounts of money to ensure that the food quality and assessment procedures in place are adequate and produce good and safe food. The fishery products represent a kind of important producer goods as it plays a significant part in agricultural production market. With the development of aquaculture, there are rapidly growing demands for fishery products from consumer, so fishery products farms will face increasing fierce competition in the market. The standards for fish and fishery products are formulated with a aim to attain a minimum standard of cleanliness and hygiene in handling, processing and marketing of fish. These standards are also intended to guide and promote export or import of fishery products between countries. This book deals with the microorganisms associated with fish and fishery products in their natural environment and as contaminants during capture, handling, processing and preservation, role of microorganisms in spoilage, microorganisms of human health significance, and the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters that regulate the activity of food associated microorganisms.