9 Cooling and freezing General information The storage life of fish or meat, or of a fish or meat product, depends on the acidity and water content of the product. External influences such as oxygen (from the air), micro-organisms, storage temperature, light and water secretion | 9 Cooling and freezing General information The storage life of fish or meat or of a fish or meat product depends on the acidity and water content of the product. External influences such as oxygen from the air micro-organisms storage temperature light and water secretion are all also important determining factors. Fresh fish and meat spoil very quickly in the high ambient temperatures of the tropics. If you want to keep fish or meat more than one day you will have to preserve it. Another preservation method is to cool or freeze the products. There are two possibilities for storing fresh fish or meat at low temperatures cooling at -1 - 4 C 30-39 F which inhibits the growth of micro-organisms freezing at -18 30 C 22 F which completely stops bacteria from growing. Because of the low temperatures all bio chemical physical and micro-biological processes are slowed down so decaying does not occur. To increase the storage life of the product it is important to lower the temperature very quickly so as to preserve its quality. If the freezing goes too slowly large ice crystals are formed which affect the structure of the product. To cool meat one needs a large cooling cell. Cooling of fish is often done by keeping it on ice. This requires ice-making machines. Very expensive and advanced freezing equipment is needed for the freezing of fresh fish or meat. Furthermore these preservation methods require a lot of energy and a large investment in the necessary materials. The supply of fish or meat must be large to cover these costs and there must also be a good market for cooled or frozen fish or meat. Therefore cooling and freezing can only be done at an industrial level. As 78 Preservation of fish and meat we are mainly focusing on preservation methods which are feasible at household level these methods will be described only very briefly. For further information please read other relevant literature. In the following an indication will be given of the relationship .
