ABSTRACT
This chapter presents ingredients used to compensate salt reduction, and natural ingredients used with antioxidant and antibacterial purposes in fish and seafood products. Although improvement of technologies applied for food preservation have stimulated international trade, traditional methods such as thermal processing, drying, freezing, or modified atmosphere packaging are still applied and have a large impact in sensory and quality properties of fresh fish and seafood. An antimicrobial agent is a chemical preservative that can be incorporated into the food or in the packaging material to induce antimicrobial activity. As an alternative or in addition to those techniques, fish products can be reformulated by the incorporation of active ingredients, as additives, coatings or as part of the packaging of the fish product. Essential oils that have been commonly studied to extend shelf life of fish products are derived from thyme, rosemary, bay, marjoram, oregano, basil, garlic, sage, green tea, nettle, flaxseed, black cumin, clove, cinnamon, grapefruit, lemon, and lemongrass.
