IMPACT OF STORAGE CONDITIONS ON LIPID CONTENT OF MUSCLE IN CLARIAS BATRACHUS (LINN, 1758) DURING SUMMER SEASON

Fish is one of the widely used food in Indian continent on account of its availability, palatability and nutritional value. Being a highly perishable commodity, its storage for longer period is restricted. But, with its increasing demand by consumers it becomes essential to ponder upon the preservation and storage techniques which can delay its spoilage while maintaining its nutritional value. Freezing is one of the most widely used storage technique to increase the shelf life of food. In the present study, an effort has been made to investigate the effect of different storage conditions on the lipid quality of the fish. For this, live and healthy Clarias batrachus weighing 130-150g were procured from local market and subjected to different storage conditions: Group I: Fresh whole fish in chilled condition, Group II: Fresh whole fish in super- chilled condition, Group III: Potassium Sorbate treated fish in chilled condition and Group IV: Potassium Sorbate treated fish in super- chilled condition. The fish from each group were analyzed for muscle content of total lipid (Soxhlet extraction method) and free fatty acid (Titrimetric method) on a regular interval of 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 days. Storage of day “0” was considered as control. Data were obtained in triplicate and expressed as mean ± standard error and were statistically analyzed using Two- way ANOVA. Findings showed a time- dependent gradual decrease in the total lipid and a gradual increase in the free fatty acid content in all the four groups. Muscle with lower level of total lipid and higher level of free fatty acid represented more lipid oxidation and hydrolysis, leading to spoilage of the stored fish. The effectiveness of storage condition in prevention of lipid loss and subsequent spoilage can be arranged as, group IV> Group II> Group III> Group I. Knowledge of effective storage condition can be beneficial in long term storage of the food items with intact freshness and nutritional quality.