J Food Process Preserv. 2020;00:e14654. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpp | 1 of 10 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.14654 © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 1 | INTRODUCTION Fish and fish products have long been known as an important source of highly digestible animal protein in healthy human diet that sup- plies all the essential amino acids. High protein and low fat content of fish make it the best food for human health from animal sources (Granata, Flick, & Martin, 2015). Fish and fish products are also known to provide significant amount of other important dietary factors like lipid soluble vitamins (e.g., A and D); highly unsaturated fatty acids and microelements (Ruxton, 2011; Weichselbaum, Coe, Buttriss, & Stanner, 2013). The food fish commodities, therefore, make a significant contribution to deal with the worldwide issues of food security and fulfil the dietary requirements of people in developed as well as the developing countries. Accordingly, use of fish and its products as human food has increased from 67% in 1960s to almost 87% in 2014 (FAO, 2016). Therefore, the food pro- duction system based on freshwater as well as marine Fisheries & Aquaculture is considered as a valuable resource to fight against the global issues of starvation and malnutrition (Tacon, Metian, Turchini, & De Silva, 2009). However, the sustainable development of sector necessitates to identify and address the major challenges that may interfere with its productivity. Compliance with consumers’ expectations has been considered as a major challenge faced by the fish food industry in developing coun- tries. Highly perishable nature of fish commodities leads to posthar- vest quality degradation and accounts for a loss of 10 to 12 MT fish per year (Kumolu-Johnson & Ndimele, 2011). Moreover, selling of low qual- ity fish causes economic losses to concerned entrepreneur and also Received: 7 January 2020 | Revised: 7 May 2020 | Accepted: 27 May 2020 DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.14654 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effect of icing on quality of silver carp during frozen storage Javairia Shafi | Kashifa Naghma Waheed | Muhammad Zafarullah | Zahid Sharif Mirza | Shelley Saima Yaqoob Fisheries Research and Training Institute, Lahore, Pakistan Correspondence Javairia Shafi, Fisheries Research and Training Institute, Manawan, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: javairiamalik@gmail.com Abstract Objective of the present study was to assess effects of pre-freezing ice storage and duration of frozen storage on proximate composition and microbial parameters of fish. Thirty-six samples of pond raised silver carp were divided into three groups. Samples in Group 1 were immediately subjected to frozen storage at −18ºC, those in Group 2 and Group 3 were stored in ice for 3 and 5 days, respectively, prior to freez- ing. In samples of Group 3, initial protein content (20.09% ± 0.44%) of fish muscles significantly decreased to 17.71% ± 0.87% ( p < .05) after 60 days of frozen storage that further reduced to 17.10% ± 0.28% after 90 days. Samples in Group 1 and Group 2 showed significantly reduced protein content after 90 days of freezing. Total coli- form and fecal coliform count was found to be higher than the maximum proposed limits in samples of Group 3. Practical applications Fish food industry has to deal with the challenge of seafood quality preservation to comply with consumer expectations. Due to lack of frozen storage facility in our fish markets, fish is stored in ice for variable duration. Results of present study indicate that condition of fish prior to freezing significantly influences its quality during frozen storage. Moreover, interactive effect of pre-freezing ice storage and frozen storage duration on fish quality implies that storage of fish in ice will intensify its microbial and enzymatic spoilage during freezing.