Research Article Effect of Chitosan Edible Coating on the Biochemical and Physical Characteristics of Carp Fillet (Cyprinus carpio) Stored at -18 ∘ C Ana Gabriela Morachis-Valdez, 1,2 Leobardo Manuel Gómez-Oliván, 1 Imelda García-Argueta, 3 María Dolores Hernández-Navarro, 1 Daniel Díaz-Bandera, 2 and Octavio Dublán-García 2 1 Departamento de Toxicolog´ ıa Ambiental, Facultad de Qu´ ımica, Universidad Aut´ onoma del Estado de M´ exico, Toluca, MEX, Mexico 2 Departamento de Alimentos, Facultad de Qu´ ımica, Universidad Aut´ onoma del Estado de M´ exico, Toluca, MEX, Mexico 3 Departamento de Nutrici´ on, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Aut´ onoma del Estado de M´ exico, Toluca, MEX, Mexico Correspondence should be addressed to Octavio Dubl´ an-Garc´ ıa; octavio_dublan@yahoo.com.mx Received 29 December 2016; Revised 20 March 2017; Accepted 18 April 2017; Published 28 May 2017 Academic Editor: Alejandro Castillo Copyright © 2017 Ana Gabriela Morachis-Valdez et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te efect of an edible coating (EC) with 1.5% chitosan as an additive, on common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fllet, was determined evaluating the biochemical, physicochemical, textural, microbiological, and nutritional characteristics periodically during its storage in the freezer (−18 ∘ C), observing a decrease in the rate of biochemical reactions related to degradation ( < 0.05), hydroperoxides content (HPC) (0.8324 nM hydroperoxides/mg of protein versus 0.5540 nM/mg with regard to the EC sample), as well as protein carbonyl content (PCC) (0.5860 nM versus 0.4743 nM of reactive carbonyl groups/mg of protein of noncoated material), keeping properties for a longer period of time, and a lower protein solubility (7.8 mg of supernatant protein/mg of total protein versus 6.8 mg/mg) and less loss of moisture (8% less, with regard to EC); for the nutritional characteristics of the fllet, lysine is the limiting aminoacid in the sample without EC, while leucine is the limiting aminoacid for the EC sample. According to microbial growth, the count was 2.2 × 10 5 CFU/g of sample in mesophiles versus 4.7 × 10 4 in the EC sample. Te results indicate that the use of EC added with chitosan maintains the quality of the product regarding lipid and protein oxidation until fourth month of storage, maintaining moisture content without variation for at least 3 months, and inhibits microbial growth up to 2 logarithmic units, during fve months of frozen storage. 1. Introduction Te quality of fsh is a complex concept, in which nutri- tional, microbiological, biochemical, and physicochemical attributes are involved. Te freshness of fsh decreases afer its sacrifce; this is due to microbiological contamination and various biochemical reactions which produce changes in the protein fractions [1]. Some investigations have emphasized how the lipid compounds are altered due to oxidative deteri- oration [2]. Proteins including the sarcoplasmic, myofbrillar, and stromal proteins are susceptible to oxidative damage by intermediates of lipid oxidation [4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal (HNE), acrolein, malondialdehyde (MDA), glyoxal, and 4-oxo-trans-2-nonenal (ONE)], isoketals and metallic ions (such as the iron in the heme group or the copper and zinc found in enzymes and metalloenzymes) present in the muscles of animals, and those originated through processing (exposure of meat to oxygen, light, and temperature, cooling, use of additives, irradiation, and vacuum-packaging) that initiate oxidative damage, generating changes in favor, color, texture/structure, and nutritional value [1–5]. Te use of low temperatures such as freezing is a general method used for the control and decrease of biochemical changes that can occur during storage time; however, this does not com- pletely inhibit the microbiological and chemical reactions that result in the deterioration of the quality of the fsh, Hindawi International Journal of Food Science Volume 2017, Article ID 2812483, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2812483