Study on the mobility of water and its correlation with the spoilage process of salmon (Salmo solar) stored at 0 and 4 °C by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF NMR 1H).

Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF NMR) was used to investigate the water mobility of salmon during cold storage and the correlation between texture, freshness, sensory quality and transversal relaxation times (T2) of salmon were studied. With the increasing of cold storage time, trapped water (T22), sensory, water holding capacity and cooking loss were descended while free water (T23), TVB-N and TBA were increased steadily, that reflected the quality of salmon quality visually. There was a significant correlation between sensory, hardness, TBA, cooking loss, K value and LF NMR parameters. The study showed that LF NMR was sensitive to different storage conditions which may be applied to monitor the quality of fish muscle, when the spoilage mechanism was affected by water properties and muscle structure.