Development and validation of a quantitative spectrophotometric method to detect the amount of carbon monoxide in treated tuna fish

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 128; no. 4; pp. 1143 - 1151
• Main Authors: Droghetti, Enrica, Bartolucci, Gian Luca, Focardi, Claudia, Bambagiotti-Alberti, Massimo, Nocentini, Mila, Smulevich, Giulietta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.10.2011; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Carbon monoxide; Electronic absorption; Fish and seafood industries; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; Marine; Method validation; Prunus; Thunnus; Tuna fish; Tuna fish; Electronic absorption; Carbon monoxide; Method validation; Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; Validation; Edible fish; Method; Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; Gas chromatography; Absorption; Tuna (Tunny fish); Development; Spectrophotometry; Mass spectrometry
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.04.002

► Method for the quantitative determination of CO in the meat drip of tuna fish by UV–Vis spectroscopy. ► Evaluation of the accuracy of the method in terms of trueness and precision using fortified samples. ► Comparison with a head space gas chromatographic technique (HS-GC–MS). ► The CO levels by UV–Vis are substantially lower than those revealed by HS-GC–MS. ► For a routine analysis the spectrophotometric method is simpler and more rapid. In recent years carbon monoxide (CO) has been employed by the fishery industry to preserve the fresh appearance of fish products during frozen storage, particularly in vacuum packaged products. CO reacts with oxy-myoglobin to form a stable cherry coloured carboxy-myoglobin complex. We propose a method that allows the quantitative determination of CO in the meat drip of tuna fish by UV–Vis spectroscopy. It consists of: (i) preparations of CO secondary standard solutions titrated against horse heart Mb primary standard solutions; (ii) determination of calibration curves to measure CO concentration in treated and untreated samples. The accuracy of the spectrophotometric method has been evaluated in terms of trueness and precision by using fortified tuna fish samples. The spectroscopic results have been compared with those obtained using a head space gas chromatographic technique (HS-GC–MS). The CO levels measured in tuna fish samples by UV–Vis are substantially lower than those revealed by HS-GC–MS. The origin of this discrepancy is discussed.