The purpose of this research was to explore the fresh keeping effect of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) with different gas ratios combined with gelatin active coatings containing eugenol on Chinese sea bass stored at -0.9 °C for 36 days. The results showed that MAP3 (60% CO2/10% O2/30% N2), together with gelatin active coatings containing eugenol, could prevent water loss, which maintained high field NMR, MRI, and organoleptic evaluation results. This hurdle technology could also effectively delay the bacterial reproduction, protein degradation, and alkaline accumulation, so it showed the lowest K value, total volatile basic nitrogen, free amino acids, total viable count, Pseudomonas spp., and H2S-producing bacteria, which better maintain the quality of sea bass.
Keywords: Chinese sea bass; active coating; eugenol; modified atmosphere packaging; superchilling.