Advanced analytical tools in seafood science

Today, there is an increased demand for high quality seafood products which are convenient to prepare and store. Also, there has been a move within the industry toward value-added processes which often results in the production of products in which fish is only one of several ingredients. Thus, analytical tools are now being used to determine the amount and types of seafood within a complex food matrix. The pronounced changes in the market for seafood in the '90's have resulted in the emergence of sophisticated, ultra-sensitive analytical tools for the analysis of fish and fish products. This paper provides an overview of some of the most recent analytical technologies. Capillary electrophoresis is an analytical technique which has been used for fish quality assessment, species identification and the analysis of seafood toxins. It has several advantages and is complimentary to the more traditional analytical tools such as high performance liquid chromatography. The paper also deals with modern immunoassays such as the ELISA or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The chief advantages of immunological techniques for the analysis of seafood are their specificity and extremely high sensitivities. Immunoassays have been used for species identification/adulteration detection of pathogenic bacteria and toxins. The paper also discusses the recent development of an "electronic nose" for the assessment of quality based volatile aroma compounds. In addition, sophisticated biosensors have been developed which are capable of detecting fish spoilage compounds and even bacterial biosensors capable of determining numbers of viable organisms in a fraction of the time of traditional methods.