ABSTRACT
Heating is the treatment mostly applied in the fish canning industry and is also used in a wide variety of processes, such as cooking, pasteurization, and sterilization of marine products. Each type of process has specific objectives and provokes different chemical and sensorial changes. Sterilization of canned fish is aimed to avoid bacteriological and microbiological contamination, but the
chemical effects affecting color and flavor can be also significant. Industrial treatments usually employed in foodstuffs can mainly modify proteins and lipids and induce interactions among components. Marine lipids with high amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids are very prone to suffer modifications by heat. The degree, rate, and nature of these reactions depend on the type of product, quality of raw material, and thermal processing employed.
