Table II-6. — Organoleptic evaluation of blue crab meat dipped in 1% sodium nitrite solution before frozen storage. 



^ The rating system is outlined in Figure 1-4. Based on 23 separate evaluations (295 individual ratings), the panel's 

 average rating for overall taste was 6.4 to 7.4 for fresh crab meat. 



' "Bag" refers to a polyethylene bag without vacuum while "V.P." refers to a three-ply laminate package heat-sealed 

 while under vacuum. 



^ Samples obtained from crabs caught near the Virginia Coast (high-salinity water). Other samples from crabs caught 

 in the Chesapeake Bay (low-salinity water). 



' Crab meat placed in package before freezing in still air at —20° F. 



least equivalent to vacuum-packaging in main- 

 taining the initial quality of crab meat during 

 frozen storage. 



Glazing also imiiroved the storage stability 

 of crab meat samples that had received unfa- 

 vorable treatments before freezing. This im- 

 provement was evident for frozen samples 

 sprayed with ascorbic acid or tripolyphosphate- 

 sodium chloride solutions compared with sam- 

 ples that had been dipped in these solutions be- 

 fore freezing and not glazed afterwards (Table 

 II-7 versus Tables II-3 and II-4). However, 

 samples that had been dipped in monosodium 

 glutamate solution or a sodium nitrite solu- 

 tion before frozen-storage were more accept- 

 able and the glazing treatments did not sig- 

 nificantly improve their acceptability (Table 

 II-7 versus Tables II-l and II-6). 



Comparison of Freezing with Other 

 Preservation Methods 



Several of the chemical solutions previously 

 discussed were also used to dip fresh crab meat 

 before preserving it by heat pasteurization, 

 heat sterilization, or freeze-drying. These so- 

 lutions are listed in Table II-8 together with 

 the results of panel evaluations for overall 

 taste after storing these samples for 2 to 8 

 months. 



The acceptability of these samples was gen- 

 erally rated no better than the acceptability 

 of similarly preserved and stored samples 

 which were not treated with chemical additives 

 (Strasser et al., 1971). Ratings for the heat- 

 pasteurized samjiles in Table II-8 were usually 

 between those obtained for frozen samples 

 stored at — 20° F and samples stored at 0° F 



22 



