Mota F., Aníbal J. & Esteves E., Cortez Vieira, M. M., Pastrana, L., Aguilera, J.
The grooved carpet shell clam Ruditapes decussatus is one of the most consumed and valuable bivalves in the Mediterranean. As with other filter-feeding species, there are health risks associated with its consumption and specimens have to be depurated pending assessment of water quality of the environment where they originate. This study aimed to examine the effects of depuration on parameters of biological (mortality), physiological/commercial (condition index, CI, and percent edibility, PE), physicochemical (pH and TVB-N content), microbiological (TVC, Enterobacteriaceae and psychrotrophic bacteria counts) and sensory quality of commercially-sized clams originated from Ria Formosa (Algarve, south Portugal) stored at chill (5 ± 1 °C) temperatures. The median time to death t50 of non-depurated clams kept chilled for up to 30 days was much lower in the Summer compared to Winter, 12.1 vs. 20.1 days. The post-mortem changes in CI, PE, pH and TVB-N content of non-depurated clams were notably different between the different temperatures tested, 5, 15 and 25 °C. Depuration affected in different ways the level but not the general dynamics of the quality parameters of clams harvested in Summer, the season of peak clams’ consumption. However, eventual safety issues emerge long after habitual storage time and panelists’ sensory rejection.
Chapter 3, pp. 43-63.
