Yumi, Ogata, Hiroki, Koike, Ikuo, Kimura and Chunhong Yuan*
The post-mortem changes in spotted mackerel (Scomber australasicus) killed by an instantaneous way of neck-breaking and bleeding (NB) and struggled suffocation (leaving in the air for 7-10 mins) (SS) were compared. It reached full rigor just 2h after death, and pH decreased to less than 6.0, ATP was degraded to 0.1 µmol/g, lactate concentrations rose to 100.3 µmol / g at 8h after death for SS group. However, in the NB group, it still kept pre-rigor even 8h after death, while, ATP remained ≥ 3.5 µmol/g, pH ≥ 6.3. The myofibrillar ATPase activity and salt solubility of the NB group showed a 10-20% higher value than that of the SS group. From the above, the instantaneous killing of neck-breaking might be a good way to delay rigor mortis to keep spotted mackerel with high freshness.
