The connective tissues of fish.

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Abstract
Summary: ‘Gaping’ is a phenomenon in which the connective tissues of fish fillets fail to hold the blocks of muscle together. Slits appear across the surface of the muscle which cannot then be mechanically skinned, or, in the case of smoked salmon fillets, sliced.Seasonal increases in the gaping of salmon fillets coincide with a fall in the postmortem pH of the flesh, occurring in June‐July.Extensive gaping can be caused by fish entering rigor mortis at too high a temperature. In trout, this temperature is considerably higher than in gadoids, suggesting that gaping from high‐temperature rigor may in practice be fairly rare in salmonids.The thermal denaturation temperature (TD) of acid‐soluble collagen isolated from the turbot farmed in warmed water does not differ significantly from that of the connective tissues of those reared at normal temperatures. This observation is discussed in relation to gaping.