Table 2. — The effect of premortem stress, holding temperatures, and freezing on the 



^ TRS = Total reducing sugars calculated as |u,M/g of glucose. 

 " G-PO4 ;= Glucosee phosphate calculated as fiU/g of glucose. 

 ' F-PO4 = Fructose phosphate calculated as /^M/g of fructose. 



Glucose (free), fiu/g. — The glucose content 

 varied from 7.3 to 17.2 fj-U/g in the raw muscle. 

 The rested controls (unfrozen) showed higher 

 levels of glucose than did the stressed. Glu- 

 cose seems to be used at a faster rate in the 

 stressed fish. This is consistent with the need 

 for more energy. However, the stressed con- 

 trols when frozen show a higher level of glu- 

 cose. This may indicate that gluconeogenesis 

 occurs even at these frozen temperatures and 

 that the stressed fish have more enzymes for 

 this mechanism than do the rested fish in that 

 the level of glucose in the stressed fish is by 

 far the highest of all treatments (17.2 /xM/g). 

 The glucose contents of the rested controls are 

 higher than that of the fish held in RSW and 

 SW for all treatments. The glucose content 

 of the rested fish is nearly the same for all 

 treatments whether frozen or not after holding 

 in RSW and SW. This seems to be tempera- 



ture-dependent since the content is generally 

 lower in fish held at 32° or 60° F and higher 

 in those held at 78° F. 



The glucose contents of the stressed controls 

 are somewhat lower than that of the fish held 

 in RSW and SW for all treatments. This is 

 again consistent with the suggestion that glu- 

 coneogenesis may still occur postmortem under 

 these conditions. 



The glucose content of the corresponding 

 canned products in all instances showed a 

 marked decrease to less than 2 /xM/g regardless 

 of the level in the raw fish. This is not sur- 

 prising since experiments reported earlier 

 showed that glucose readily participates in 

 browning reactions. 



Glucose phosphate, fiU/g. — The glucose 

 phosphate (GP) content was calculated as 

 fiU/g of glucose. It varied from 3.5 to 15.9 



16 



