Features of Improving Seafood Products for the Consumer:

• reviews the range of research into consumer attitudes towards seafood
• discusses key issues in improving the safety, nutritional and sensory quality of seafood products
• examines the range of technologies available to improve the quality and ensure animal welfare
• valuable reference for the seafood processing industry

Based on a major EU Integrated Research Project, SEAFOODplus, Improving Seafood Products for the Consumer reviews the range of research into consumer attitudes towards seafood and the key issues in improving the safety, nutritional and sensory quality of seafood products to meet consumer expectations.

Part One reviews consumer attitudes to seafood, including regional differences, the impact of eating quality on product preferences, consumer information needs and attitudes to processed seafood products.

Part Two discusses research on the important health benefits of seafood consumption in such areas as gastrointestinal health, heart disease and the health of children and young adults.

Part Three covers key seafood safety issues and how they can be managed, from virus contamination and pathogens to histamine and biogenic amines.

Part Four and Part Five discuss the range of technologies designed both to optimise the sensory and health benefits of seafood and ensure animal welfare in aquaculture operations.

Part Six reviews traceability issues.

Contents

Part 1: Consumers and Seafood

Consumer attitudes and seafood consumption in Europe

• Consumer motives and barriers to seafood consumption
• Overview of cross-cultural investigation of consumption patterns and attitudes towards fish
• European consumption patterns
• Attitudes and preferences across Europe – differences and similarities
• Convenience and fish consumption

Improved eating quality of seafood: the link between sensory characteristics, consumer liking and attitudes

• Why is the eating quality important for the industry and for the consumer? Methods for evaluation of sensory quality of seafood
• Sensory characteristics of cod and salmon
• Consumer liking of different seafood products related to sensory characteristics
• Consumer segmentation across different European countries, related to attitudes and product preferences
• The Seafood Sensory Quality Model

Evaluating consumer information needs in the purchase of seafood products

• WMaterials and methods
• Empirical findings

Consumer evaluation of tailor-made seafood products

• The product in its environment
• Intention and behavioural indictors
• Perceived quality and satisfaction
• Results from a project about consumer evaluation with a Norwegian fish burger

Part 2: Health Benefits of Seafood

Health benefits of seafood

• Developments in nutrition science
• Nutritional role of seafood

Protective effects of fish consumption in relation to gastrointestinal health

• Colorectal cancer (CRC)
• Inflammatory bowel disease and fish consumption
• Fish consumption and other gastrointestinal tract cancers
• Possible importance of other nutritional aspects of fish consumption
• The FISHGASTRO Study

Fish consumption and the health of children and young adults

• Effect of fish consumption on obesity
• Effect of fish consumption on blood lipids
• Effect of fish consumption on maternal and child health
• N-3 fatty acids and postpartum depression
• Bone health and n-3 fatty acids
• Communicating nutritional effects of fish to young adults and children and developing functional fish products for improved health

Fish, omega-3 fatty acids and heart disease

• Fish, omega-3 fatty acids and heart disease
• Omega-3 fatty acids from fish and cardiac arrhythmias
• Possible mechanisms of effects of omega-3 fatty acids on the heart
• Conversion and metabolism of omega-3 fatty acids in the human body

Part 3: Ensuring Seafood Safety

• Risks associated with seafood consumption
• Relative incidence of microbiological illness associated with seafood
• Control of risks associated with seafood and legal requirements
• Contribution of SEAFOODplus to seafood safety

Detecting virus contamination in seafood

• Viruses and shellfish contamination
• Methods for detecting viruses in shellfish
• Potential emerging virus problems

Reducing microbial risk associated with shellfish in European countries

• REDRISK project
• Potential strategies to limit microbial contamination of shellfish and tools to implement them

Bacterial pathogens in seafood

• Principal bacterial pathogens associated with seafood
• Sources of bacterial pathogens in seafoods
• Control of bacterial contamination
• Seafood-associated bacterial illness
• Conventional methods for the detection, enumeration and identification of bacterial pathogens
• Molecular methods for the detection, enumeration and identification of bacterial pathogens
• Molecular approaches to microbial typing

Histamine and biogenic amines: formation and importance in seafood

• Histamine fish poisoning (HFP)
• Legislation
• Formation of histamine and other biogenic amines in seafoods
• Determination of histamine and biogenic amines in seafood
• Management of histamine formation and histamine fish poisoning

Part 4: Seafood from Source to Consumer Product

Developing functional seafood products

• Consumer studies with respect to the development of new functional seafood products
• Novel ingredients for incorporation into functional restructured/fillet-based seafood
• Development of functional restructured seafood products
• Addition of dietary fibre and antioxidant dietary fibre to minced fish muscle and surimi gel based products
• Aquaculture production of functional seafood

Mild processing techniques and development of functional marine protein and peptide ingredients

• Improved yield in traditional fish processing
• Processing of marine proteins and peptides
• Bioactive properties of fish protein hydrolysates and peptides
• Functional properties of dried marine proteins and peptides
• Market for functional marine proteins and peptide products

Hurdle technology to ensure the safety of seafood products

• Salt hurdle in seafood processing
• Biopreservation of lightly preserved seafood products
• Antimicrobial compounds
• Antimicrobial packaging
• Pulsed light as a novel decontamination technology

Preventing lipid oxidation in seafood

• Processes leading to lipid and protein oxidation in seafood
• Common analytical methods to evaluate oxidation
• Introduction to model systems for use in seafood oxidation studies
• Kinetics and modelling of lipid oxidation in liposomes and emulsions using the oxygen uptake rate
• Effect of emulsifiers and antioxidants on lipid oxidation in oil-in-water emulsion model systems
• Washed fish mince as model systems
• Natural antioxidants in fish products

Part 5: Seafood from Aquaculture

The biological basis of variability in the texture of fish flesh

• Muscle texture
• Organisation, structure and biochemistry of fish myotomes
• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle growth
• Relationship between muscle structural traits and texture
• Proteolytic enzymes and post-mortem softening of the flesh
• Environmental influences on muscle structural traits
• Heritability of muscle structural traits

Fish welfare and ethical qualities in aquaculture

• Terms and definitions
• Fish farmers and consumers seeking a common destiny
• Welfare during the production cycle
• Welfare during slaughter of farmed fish
• Monitoring ethical qualities in farmed fish

Part 6: Seafood Traceability to Regain Consumer Confidence

Improving traceability in seafood production

• The METHODS project: Introduction
• The vocabulary
• Good Traceability Practice Manual
• The SEAFOODplus map service
• The IMPLEM project: Introduction
• Data Capture Technology - Radio frequency identification data (RFID) tags
• Choice of technology/equipment: Introduction
• Testing radio frequency temperature loggers at Fjord Seafood Herøy, Norway
• Fish chain process studies

Validation of traceability in the seafood production chain

• Principles for the validation of traceability
• Establishment of indicators for the validation of a traceability system
• Specific tools for validation of the most important traceable data
• Methods for validation of traceability to ensure safety
• Validation of traceability for quality concerns
• Validation methodologies to prevent fraud
• Validation of data management and information flow

Index

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