Abstract: Changes in the microbial community and quality of black-gill bighead croaker meatballs with added chitosan at levels of 0, 0.05%, 0.15%, 0.25%, 0.35% and 0.5% as an excellent biological food preservative were investigated during storage at 0 ℃ in a vacuum packaging environment. It wad found that adding chitosan at 0.5% could markedly extend the shelf life of black-gill bighead croaker meatballs, and inhibit microbial growth, revealing a significant (P ＜ 0.05) inhibitory effect against the dominant microbes including Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonads, Micrococcaceae and Staphylococcus. No obvious antimicrobial effect was observed when chitosan was added at a level of less than 0.5%; meanwhile, both the pH and total volatile basic nitrogen of black-gill bighead croaker meatballs showed a notable decrease, the harness was remarkably elevated, and little change in the springiness was observed. 

Key words: chitosan, black-gill bighead croaker meatballs, microbe, texture