Quality characteristics of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) fish sauce produced using five kinds of material

This research focused on the evaluation of fish sauce prepared from sardine (Sardina pilchardus). Five kinds of material, including by-products of canned sardine (W), mixture of sardine meat and by-products (M), sardine meat(S), whole fish without visceral organs (E), whole fish (U), were used to ferment fish sauces. The results showed the concentration of amino acid nitrogen (AAN) of W, M, S, E, and U reached 0.79, 0.87, 0.91, 0.88, and 0.94 g/100 mL respectively on the 30th day of fermentation, and reached about 1.06 (1.00–1.09) g/100 mL in all fish sauces after 180 days of fermentation; the concentration of total soluble nitrogen (TSN) of five fish sauces exceed 1.2 g/100 mL after 30 days of fermentation; content of free amino acid and total fresh amino acids of M and E were significantly higher than that of other three fish sauces. In addition, key desirable volatiles, including 3-methylbutyraldehy, 2-methylbutyraldehy, benzaldehyde and 2-ethyfuran, were dominant in the fish sauce M and E. Sensory evaluation of M and U found better overall acceptance, flavor and taste than that of W, S, E. These results suggest that those five kinds of material can be used to prepare fish sauces, while M containing by-products of canned sardine showed the best quality, indicating the potential usage of by-products of canned sardine.