Fresh fish is among the most nutritive foodstuffs, but it is also the most perishable one. Therefore, huge efforts have been made to find the most suitable tools to deliver fish of the highest quality to exigent consumers. Scientific studies help the industry to exploit the newest findings to scale up emerging industrial technologies. In this review article, the focus is on the latest scientific findings on edible films used for fish coatings and storage. Since today’s packaging processing and economy are governed by sustainability, naturality underpins packaging science. The synthesis of edible coatings, their components, processing advantages, and disadvantages are outlined with respect to the preservation requirements for sensitive fish. The requirements of coating properties are underlined for specific scenarios distinguishing cold and freezing conditions. This review raises the importance of antioxidants and their role in fish storage and preservation. A summary of their impact on physical, chemical, microbiological, and sensory alterations upon application in real fish is given. Studies on their influence on product stability, including pro-oxidant activity and the prevention of the autolysis of fish muscle, are given. Examples of lipid oxidation and its inhibition by the antioxidants embedded in edible coatings are given together with the relationship to the development of off-odors and other unwanted impacts. This review selects the most significant and valuable work performed in the past decade in the field of edible coatings whose development is on the global rise and adheres to food waste and sustainable development goals 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), and 12 (responsible consumption and production).

Histamine fish poisoning is a foodborne illness caused by the consumption of fish products with high histamine content. Although intoxication mechanisms and control strategies are well known, it remains by far the most common cause of seafood-related health problems. Since conventional methods for histamine testing are difficult to implement in high-throughput quality control laboratories, simple and rapid methods for histamine testing are needed to ensure the safety of seafood products in global trade. In this work, the previously developed SERS method for the determination of histamine was tested to determine the influence of matrix effect on the performance of the method and to investigate the ability of different chemometric tools to overcome matrix effect issues. Experiments were performed on bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) and bonito (Sarda sarda) samples exposed to varying levels of microbial activity. Spectral analysis confirmed the significant effect of sample matrix, related to different fish species, as well as the extent of microbial activity on the predictive ability of PLSR models with R² of best model ranging from 0.722–0.945. Models obtained by ANN processing of factors derived by PCA from the raw spectra of the samples showed excellent prediction of histamine, regardless of fish species and extent of microbial activity (R² of validation > 0.99).

The aim of this study was to test the applicability of bioelectrical measurements and a needle-type multi-electrode array in evaluating salt and moisture content of structurally heterogeneous food samples, such as fish. Impedance measurements were performed at different frequencies in order to find the most appropriate range, where impedance module and/or phase angle are the most sensitive to salt and moisture content. The salt, moisture, and water phase salt (WPS) of the salted rainbow trout samples were successfully evaluated by the impedance module measured at 50 kHz (AdR2 > 0.85). Due to rapid and non-destructive analysis coupled with low cost device design, this method for determination of salt and/or moisture has potential as the quality control technique for the fish industry.

Marine fish species infested with Anisakidae larvae are reported in many fishing grounds. Besides the problems related to consumer’s health when the live larvae are ingested (anisakidosis) or to allergic problems caused by the larvae, the products excreted/secreted or released by the larvae are recognized as proteases, protease inhibitors or antioxidants, which can cause changes in fish muscle during storage. To study this problem, live larvae or a homogenate of larvae in water were added in controlled conditions to gelatin agar gels and minced fish muscle and stored at 20 or 5 °C for 7 days. A high activity in the gelatin agar gels was observed, whereas the inclusion of larvae or larvae homogenates in the muscle did not produce detrimental changes in texture, viscosity, color, or oxidation of fish muscle. The electrophoretic pattern of the extracted natural actomyosin presented fewer changes during storage in the larvae and larvae homogenate added lots than in the control lots. Nevertheless in naturally infested fish different parasite-host mechanisms might be involved. Parasitized fish has to be processed with treatments which kill the larvae to avoid consumers’ anisakidosis. However, as some of the Anisakis allergens are very stable to heat, patients allergic to Anisakis sp. have to be informed before ingesting parasitized fish or fish products.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify and characterize kids' menu offer in fast-food and traditional restaurants located in shopping centres in five different countries.Design/methodology/approach: An observational cross-sectional study is carried out, though a study was performed in all restaurants located in shopping centres from main cities, in five countries: Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Hungary and Portugal. A tool for assessing the quality of menus is used for the analysis (Kids Menu Healthy Score (KIMEHS)). Menu prices between countries were compared.Findings: A total of 192 kids' menus were collected, 44 in Portugal, 57 in Brazil, 66 in Chile, 15 in Hungary and 10 in Croatia. All the countries have average negative KIMEHS values for the menus, indicating that the offer is generally poor in terms of healthy options. The cost of children's menus in European countries is generally low. In Brazil, the price is significantly more expensive, which may limit the accessibility by social economically deprived populations. No significant differences were found in the average cost of meals from different restaurants typology. Traditional/Western restaurants present the highest price.Practical implications: Globally, kids' menus are composed by unhealthy food items, pointing to the need of improvements in food availability, aiming to promote healthy food habits among children.Originality/value: This study presents innovative data on children's menus, allowing for characterization of meals offered to children and comparison between different countries.Key points Kids’ menus are composed by unhealthy food items. Improvement of kids' menus quality will promote children food habits. Healthier out-of-home food consumption will contribute to public health.