Abstract: In order to study the relationship between the quality change and water migration of Trichiurus haumela during cold storage, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) was used to analyze changes in different states of water in fish tissue. The transverse relaxation time (T2) spectrum showed that with increasing storage time, T22 gradually reduced and T23 increased, suggesting that a significant amount of water within myofibrils was moved outwards and lost, resulting in reduced water-holding capacity of fish muscle, and gradual quality deterioration. This is consistent with the results of traditional physical and chemical analysis. In addition, T22 and T23 had a high significant correlation with water-holding capacity, water content and cooking loss (P < 0.01), being significantly correlated with sensory evaluation and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) (P < 0.05). Therefore, LF-NMR technique could be used to detect the quality change of Trichiurus haumela during cold storage.

Key words: low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), moisture migration, quality