Combination of Freezing, Low Sodium Brine, and Cold Smoking on the Quality and Shelf-Life of Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) Fillets as a Strategy to Innovate the Market of Aquaculture Products

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The growing fish consumption driven by the increased production, the concomitant reduction in wastage, and the huge amount of fish food traded globally, makes it important to address the sustainability, profitability, security, and safety issues related to the seafood production sector. Toward this direction, innovative methods extending shelf-life, maintaining seafood quality, safety and nutritional characteristics and that open new market opportunities, satisfy consumer preferences, and improve product traceability are required. Answering this call, this study aimed to develop a new value added product exploiting a species largely cultured in Italy (i.e., European sea bass). In particular, sea bass fillets were cold smoked using both fresh and frozen fillets to understand the effectiveness of this kind of processing on developing a new fish product and whether the quality of the raw material that could be affected by freezing and thawing could change the quality of the final product. It was seen that the quality of the raw material was affected by the time of frozen storage and that these starting conditions consequently impaired the quality of the smoked fillets. However, cold smoking was proven to be an effective process to develop a valuable product contributing to the growth of the aquaculture sector. ABSTRACT: Aquaculture is playing a leading role in both meeting the growing demand for seafood and increasing the sustainability of the fish production sector. Thus, innovative technologies that improve its sustainability, competitiveness, and safety are necessary for growth in the sector. This study aimed to develop cold smoked sea bass fillets from aquaculture. The aptitude of frozen and fresh fillets for cold smoking was investigated by processing both fresh and thawed fillets kept previously at −20 °C for 15, 30, 60, and 90 days. Moreover, to develop a low-salt product, fillets were immersed in low-sodium or standard brine. Sensory, biochemical, and physical-chemical analyses were performed on both the raw fillets and the smoked fillets during vacuum packaged storage for 35 days at 1 ± 0.5 °C. Young modulus values, representative of texture and sensory evaluation, showed that the quality of fresh fillets was better compared to the thawed ones, thus affecting the quality of the final product as the correlation between parameters showed (principal component analysis). Cold smoking was effective in both maintaining the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) below the threshold for spoilage and preventing lipid peroxidation. Moreover, partial sodium replacement by potassium did not alter the sensory attributes of smoked fillets, which maintained high scores up to 21 days.