Development of a new method for determination of total haem protein in fish muscle

Using classic haem protein quantification methods, the extraction step in buffer or acid acetone often becomes limiting if muscle is oxidised and/or stored; haem-proteins then tend to bind to muscle components like myofibrils and/or biomembranes. The objective of this study was to develop a new haem protein determination method for fish muscle overcoming such extractability problems. The principle was to homogenise and heat samples in an SDS-containing phosphate buffer to dissolve major muscle components and convert ferrous/ferric haem proteins to hemichromes with a unique absorption peak at 535 nm. Hb-recovery tests with the new and classic methods showed that the new method and Hornsey's method performed significantly better on fresh Hb-enriched cod mince than Brown's and Drabkin's methods; recovery was ⩾98%. However, in highly oxidised samples and in cod protein isolates made with acid pH-shift processing, the new method performed better than Hornsey's method (63% and 87% vs. 50% and 68% recovery). Further, the new method performed well in fish muscle with ⩽30% lipid, <5% NaCl and pH 5.5-7.0; it was also unaffected by freezing/frozen storage.