viable bacteria obtainable from the frozen- 

 stored product (Rojowska and Cyganska, 

 1966^). 



Ascorbic acid has been used successfully to 

 retard oxidative deterioration during frozen 

 storage of several types of fish fillets (Ander- 

 son and Danielson, 1961; Bauernfeind. Smith, 

 and Siemer, 1951; Greig, 1967a, 1967b; Greig 

 et al., 1967) and to inhibit the blueing reaction 

 in canned king crab meat (Groninger and Das- 

 sow, 1964) . The results of other investigations 

 suggest that treating shrimp (Faulkner and 

 Watts, 1955), oysters (Osterhaug and Nelson, 

 1957; Pottinger, 1951), lobster meat (Dyer 

 and Home, 1953; Getchell and Highlands, 

 1957), or herring (Banks, 1951; Stansby and 

 Dassow, 1963; Stansby, Pottinger, and Mi- 

 yauchi, 1956) with ascorbic acid offers little 

 or no improvement on the storage life of these 

 frozen products. Since the effectiveness of 

 ascorbic acid results from its sensitivity to ox- 

 idizing agents, its usefulness in extending shelf 

 life is obviously related to the concentration 

 remaining on a product after a dip or spray 

 treatment and after a given set of frozen stor- 

 age conditions. For this reason, it is con- 

 ceivable that the difference in results between 

 the cited investigations may be a result of dif- 

 ferent frozen storage conditions after a treat- 

 ment with a dilute solution containing up to 

 l^f ascorbic acid. On the other hand, antiox- 

 idants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) 

 and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) have 

 been used successfully in several food products 

 because their effectiveness depends on a dif- 

 ferent chemical mechanism (Furia, 1968). 



Condensed phosphates, salt, and citrate have 

 been used on several occasions singularly, or 

 in various combinations, as components of dips 

 or glazes used to extend the shelf life of frozen- 

 stored seafoods. Trijiolyphosphate and pyro- 

 phosphate are examples of condensed phos- 

 phates which are used to inhibit textural 

 deterioration or jn-otein dehydration in frozen- 

 stored fish fillets (Burt, Dreosti, Jones, Kelman, 

 McDonald, Murray, Simmonds, and Stroud, 

 1968; Mahon, 1962; Murray 1967), canned 



' Rojowska, I., and R. Cyzanska, 1966. The influence 

 Df sodium glutamate on the bacterial count in frozen 

 foods. Paper presented at the Second International 

 Congress of Food Science and Technology, Warsaw, 

 Poland. 



tuna (U.S. General Services Administration, 

 1964) , or canned king crab (Jones, 1968) . Salt 

 (usually sodium chloride) is usually included 

 in a tripolyphosphate or a pyrophosi^hate solu- 

 tion to increase its effectiveness. Studies by 

 Dyer, Brockerhoff, Hoyle, and Fraser (1964) 

 and Hellendoorn (1962) demonstrate that the 

 optimum concentration of each of these com- 

 pounds is related to its ionic strength and the 

 ionic strength of the fluid in the surface layer 

 of a treated fillet. Sodium chloride alone has 

 been used in solutions for treating Dungeness 

 crab meat (Farber and Lerke, 1968), shrimp 

 meat (Commercial Fisheries Review, 1952), 

 lobsters (Getchell and Highlands, 1957), or 

 fish fillets (Holston and Pottinger, 1955). 

 Citric acid has been used to inhibit discoloration 

 of crab meat (Dassow, 1950; Gangal and 

 Magar, 1963; Stansby and Dassow, 1963). 

 Treatment with a single acidified brine solu- 

 tion has already been suggested to inhibit 

 textural deterioration and discoloration of 

 Dungeness (Farber and Lerke, 1968), king 

 (Dassow, 1950), and blue (Fellers and Harris, 

 1940) crab meat during subsequent storage. 



Sodium nitrite is used as a preservative and 

 color fixative in several meat products and in 

 certain seafood products such as smoked-cured 

 salmon, sable fish, and shad (Furia, 1968). 

 The use of nitrite in crab meat has been pro- 

 posed (U.S. General Services Administration, 

 1965). Since under certain storage conditions 

 outgrowth of Clostridium botulinum in seafoods 

 is theoretically possible (Johannsen, 1961; 

 Perigo and Roberts, 1968), nitrite has been 

 used occasionally as a bacterial growth inhib- 

 itor. 



Although the chemicals listed above have 

 been used in several applications for preserving 

 seafoods, evidence is lacking concerning their 

 suitability in preserving frozen blue crab meat 

 even in contrast to heat-pasteurized, heat-ster- 

 ilized, or chilled meat. On the other hand, 

 there is definite evidence that factors such as: 

 rate of freezing, method of packaging, and 

 storage temperature and its duration have to 

 be carefully controlled in order to ijreserve 

 frozen blue crab meat for 2 to 8 months with- 

 out any significant loss in the desirable qual- 

 ities of freshly picked meat (Strasser et al., 

 1971). Consequently, the objective of the 



16 



