title: Physiological factors influencing toughness in cooked Saddletail snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus).
abstract: Saddletail snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus) is a commercially significant tropical species in Australia and has been the subject of consumer complaints of extreme toughness in cooked fillets. Textural and biochemical analyses including collagen and hydroxylysyl pyridinoline (PYD) cross-links concentrations were conducted on 101 commercially harvested Saddletail snapper to identify causes of toughness. Fish age was found to account for 75.6% of observed variation in cooked muscle texture (work done) of Saddletail snapper. A significant linear relationship (P < 0.001) between PYD content and cooked muscle texture was also identified accounting for 50.3% of observed variation. The concentration ratio of PYD to total collagen (TC) ranged from 0.04 to 0.38 mol PYD per mol of TC. Fish size was also found to be a poor indicator of fish age and therefore a poor indicator of the potential risk of toughness of the cooked muscle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Some tropical fish species of commercial significance can grow reasonably old without growing into particularly large fish. These fish can have a cooked meat texture that is very firm and not dissimilar to that of cooked chicken meat. These species should be marketed as such and not targeted toward existing markets and consumers more familiar with fish species with softer meat texture.
authors.affiliation: Innovative Food Technologies, Dept. of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, 39 Kessels Rd., Coopers Plains, Queensland, 4108, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew John
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Forrest
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Exley
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mayze
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paulo
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sikes
authors.forename: Susan Elizabeth
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Poole
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D003094:Collagen; D003296:Cooking; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis*; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal; D009132:Muscles / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen
keywords: Lutjanus malabaricus; Saddletail snapper; age; collagen; cross-links; sex; texture; toughness