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Abstract
Introduction: Worldwide there is a strong requirement for food quality and safety [Citation1], with the chemical and biological nature of hazards being the major concern. Fish degradation is a complex phenomenon where a series of events occur simultaneously, influencing each other and beginning immediately at the time of death [Citation1]. Consequently, a reliable fish quality analysis is essential for consumer protection. Thus, the main aim of the present study was to develop an analytical approach based on sample treatment and GC-MS methodologies to detect biogenic amines as products of seafood degradation.
Materials and methods: For the GC-MS analysis two Atlantic fish species were selected (Trachurus trachurus and Sarda sarda). The fish were fileted and exposed to room temperature for 9 days (T. trachurus) and 13 days (S. sarda). Samples were collected every day and frozen (-80ºC) for later analysis. Following the periods of exposure, stored samples, were homogenized in 75:25 Methanol: 0,4N HCl. Then, samples were treated and analyzed by GC-MS as described by Richard et al. [Citation2].
Results: The results show that biogenic amines arise after two days of exposure in analysed fish samples. Following GC-MS analysis, putrescine, tyramine, spermine and spermidine emerged in two days and cadaverine and phenylethylamine after four days of exposure. However, cadaverine, spermine and spermidine decreased below LD (limit of detection) after nine days of exposure showing a different profile over exposure time.
Discussion and conclusions: The different biogenic amines profile found is compatible with the bacterial activity in sea food, namely biogenic amines which are usually produced by decarboxylation of free amino acids and transamination of aldehydes and ketones by the action of diverse microorganisms. Moreover, although GC-MS seems to be reliable technique to analyse biogenic amines in seafood samples more analysis should be performed focused on other sample treatment methodologies and cross-checking with other analytical techniques (e.g. LC-MS/MS and HPLC) until validation.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge FCT that funded the project 3Qs for quality - Development of new devices and techniques for seafood quality assessment (PTDC/MAR-BIO/6044/2014) the strategic project UID/Multi/04378/2013 granted to UCIBIO.