ABSTRACT
     In this study, the development of a new product of smoked sea bass with low sodium content was carried out. For this purpose, the physico-chemical characteristics of sea bass, raw material of this study, and the main physico-chemical parameters which better define the commercial smoked/marinated fish products, were studied. In the second step of this study, it was develop a product of smoked sea bass with low sodium content, for this purpose the effect of the raw material characteristic and partial sodium chloride replacement by potassium chloride, on the process and final product, were studied. Finally, the quality evolution of the obtained product during the cold storage was studied. In this chapter, it was studied the effect of sodium partial replacement and kind of packaging (air, vacuum and modified atmosphere) on the evolution of the sensory and microbial quality, as well as on different physico-chemical parameters.
     The results obtained showed the high nutritional quality of farmed sea bass what, together with its lower cost and higher availability, make it a highly regarded raw material for the fish industry. Smoked and marinated fish products exhibited a high variability, specially in their salt content and aw, what affects the product preservation and its sensory characteristics. These results would show the interest in developing new procedures which would respond to the expectations of a consumer ho expects the product to have the same sensory quality throughout successive purchases.
     Regarding to salting process, it was observed that salting with thermodynamic control would allow to reduce the variability above mentioned, obtaining more homogeneous products, specially in their salt content. On the other hand, partial sodium replacement by potassium affected weight, moisture and solutes changes, as well as, pH, aw and colour of sea bass fillets, for this reason, this effect has to be considered in order to establish the proper salting conditions.
     In the new product of smoked sea bass, replacement of 50% NaCl by KCl did not affect phisico-chemical, microbial and sensory quality of the freshly smoked product, neither during sold storage. Vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging manage to increase smoked sea bass shelf life in approximately 7 days with regard to air, being similar the evolution of both kind of packaging.