Abstract
Half-dried Pacific saury of Cololabis saira (HDPS) is a fatty fish of high nutritional value with remarkable consumer interest in the Asia Pacific region, however, it undergoes various deteriorative changes associated with browning, bacterial contamination, oxidation, and decreased sensory attributes while marketed in various processed forms. To withstand these complications, research aimed to investigate the hot smoking technology to improve physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory attributes of HDPS with prolonged shelf life in storage conditions. The HDPS fillets were processed with hot smoking (70 °C) using various sawdust materials of Apple, Chestnut, Oak, Cherry, and Walnut, wherein the smoke time was set at different time points of 0, 20, 25, and 30 min. The results indicated that 25 min of smoking time with the selective Oak sawdust showed better sensorial characteristics, physicochemical properties, and microbiological qualities. Moreover, HDPS possessed higher nutritional value and valuable functional fatty acids, particularly docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, having a storage ability of up to 30 days at 10 °C. The processed HDPS offered a reduced level of Trimethylamine-N-oxide and Benzo[a]pyrene contents, indicating the acceptable and safe for human consumption. Therefore, HDPS with hot smoking could likely be a promising technique for preserving the premium quality of the product by providing desired characteristics of health and nutrition to end-point consumers.