You might be wondering, what tuna loin CO treated actually is. As
you know, tuna is often eaten raw as sushi or sashimi. This shows that tuna is
a fresh seawater product, which is why it has bright red color. The bright red
color itself is actually comes from oxygenated process of the muscle pigments. If
the tuna is still in alive condition, this muscle pigments called as myoglobin
will bring the oxygen into any muscle that is working. That process result in
the pigmentation which create bright red color that you often see on the tuna loin.
What is Tuna Loin CO Treated Procedure?
As you know seafood as a trading commodity
keeps getting increase in demand especially on this last decades. Furthermore
tuna is a seafood product which is favor by many people. Sadly it was only
available during certain season. However with the advancement of technology now
tuna fish loin product is available in any season. Of course the consumer want
the tuna loin product that available should be in fresh condition. This is why
tuna loin which is fresh, thawed or frozen is treated with this CO procedure to
keep the fresh appearance. With this procedure, the tuna loin will still look
appetizing in bright red color. Southeast Asian countries are the biggest
producer and exporter of these tuna loin CO treated.
The tuna loin is treated using carbon
monoxide (CO) so the meat can still retain their bright red color in longer
time. The CO procedure involves the usage of cold smoke treatment using
filtered wood to prevent oxidation from happening to the tuna loin. If the tuna
loin is not treated using this CO procedure, the meat texture, odor as well as
the color will change to brown color which will be unappealing for the
consumers.
But you should not have to worry since
there is no impairment on your health even when you eat tuna loin which already
treated using this CO procedure. This procedure is only done to retain their
bright red color thus making the tuna loin looked fresh. Tuna loin which
already treated using this CO procedure is called as tuna
loin CO treated.
FDA already ensure you that tuna loin which
already treated with CO procedure is not harmful if this procedure is not done
to mask already spoiled tuna loin. That is why; you should make sure that the tuna loin CO treated product which you want to
purchase comes from trustable producer which only sell tuna loin made using
high quality tuna meat which frozen immediately to keep it from being spoiled
after being treated with CO procedure.
However, the freshness of tuna loin is determined
not only using the color. Besides the color itself, other factors that you can
use to see the freshness of tuna loin are the tuna species, the meat fat
content, and the cut which done to make the loin. For example bluefin tuna
species that has high quality cut will not have bright red color even though
the tuna loin is still fresh. Instead it will have pale pink color because of
the fat content which spread around the red meat and make it appear in pale
pink color if it is still fresh. Thus you should also know the tuna species
which used to make the tuna loin to determine the fresh color that it has.
Those tuna loin
CO treated procedure is alright to do if the tuna meat has high quality
and the procedure is done in controlled system. Then you should make sure that
the tuna loin is made using high quality tuna meat which transport using safe
procedure, then froze when needed to maintain its fresh condition. This is why, it is important to have the best
resource of tuna meat with high quality and fresh condition to be treated using
CO procedure before supplied to the customer. The system on which the tuna loin
is made should also have good quality control system which will check the
quality of the tuna meat used in the procedure effectively to ensure that the
meat itself has high quality. The tuna loin CO treated procedure will then able
to maintain the fresh look of that high quality meat used in the making
procedure of tuna loin.
