BIOGENIC AMINES CONTENT OF ROMANIAN MARKET MACKEREL

Abstract

In Romania we eat only imported mackerel (Scomber scombrus) because we do not have this kind of fish locally. In our paper we studied samples of frozen and smoked mackerel from Romanian market terms of biogenic amines content. The purpose was to find if the samples had low or high quantities of biogenic amines, because it is well known that amines such as: histamine and tyramine when exceeding some values are bad for human health, especially in scombroid fishes. Biogenic amines from mackerel samples were determined by HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) and the amines traced were: tryptamine, β-phenylethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, serotonin, tyramine, spermine and spermidine. In frozen mackerel samples we detected small amounts of histamine, cadaverine, spermidine and putrescin. Only one sample of the frozen mackerel showed clearly the incipient state of spoilage. The biogenic amines from smoked mackerel samples were higher than those found in frozen mackerel. In smoked samples we have not detected serotonin, and only one sample had phenylethylamine. This sample also showed an incipient state of spoilage. Histamine and tyramine values were higher in smoked mackerel samples than in the frozen ones. The quantities found of those two amines in the analyzed samples do not cause health problems to people health.