Utilisation of male Arctic capelin and Atlantic cod intestines for fish sauce production – evaluation of fermentation conditions

The present paper shows that the fish by-products male Arctic capelin and Atlantic cod intestines can be utilized as raw materials for the production of high value fish sauce for human consumption. By supplementing minced capelin with 5–10% enzyme-rich cod pyloric caeca, a good recovery of fish sauce protein (60%) was obtained after 6 months of storage. Although, the proteases present in cod pylorus caeca are cold adapted enzymes, a storage temperature of 26°C gave a higher fish sauce recovery than storage at 21°C. Initial alkalification of samples to pH 8 accelerated the tissue solubilisation and gave a better fish sauce recovery without adveresely affecting the pH of the final product. Addition of small amounts of calcium had no significant effects on either protease activity or protein recovery in the fish sauce fraction.