Resumen de The use of filtered air curtains along with antimicrobial ice improves the quality and shelf life of fresh fish in refrigerated open display cases

Antonio López Gómez, Laura Navarro Segura, Simona Georgina Hasa, María Ros Chumillas, Ginés Benito Martínez Hernández

• The shelf life of fresh chilled and ice-preserved fish is relatively short. For this reason, different techniques have been studied in order to maintain the freshness characteristics of the fish for as long as possible. The work that is now presented analyses the interest of using filtered air curtains through HEPA filters in combination with antimicrobial ice to maintain the freshness characteristics of fresh fish in open displays for longer. The sea bass preserved in the control conditions (without antimicrobial ice or air from HEPA filters) presented higher counts of Pseudomonas and total mesophilic aerobic microorganisms, than those preserved with antimicrobial ice (T1) or with control ice with a filtered air curtain (T2). We observed a synergistic effect of the use of antimicrobial ice and air curtain filtered in HEPA filters (T3), achieving a better control of the proliferation of the spoilage microbiology, and of the evolution of the freshness characteristics of the fish, ...