A Method of Food Preservation

As Anne already mentioned, we went to a lab on Thursday that, among many other things, analyzed the compounds in fish that cause the distinct "spoiled fish" smell. The smell was caused by a buildup of the compound hypoxanthine, which is an intermediary compound in the biochemical pathway for the degradation of ATP to uric acid. In living organisms, ATP is constantly being produced, used, recycled, and/or degraded. The major product in the final step of the degradation is uric acid, which, as we all know, is excreted via urine. As long as an organism is alive, nucleotides will be degraded to uric acid and then excreted. In a dead organism like a fish, for example, there is a buildup of uric acid and the intermediary compounds like hypoxanthine, which has a foul smell.



To preserve the freshness of fish and other foods, it may be possible to use enzymatic manipulation of the fish to prevent or revert the degradation of its compounds. For example, the fish can be placed in a solution containing an inhibitor to the enzyme that creates hypoxanthine. Or, an enzyme can be added that reverses the formation of hypoxanthine. In this manner, fish can be preserved longer from the smell standpoint. This method obviously will not prevent any other forms of spoiling food, but can be employed to decrease the strength of the typical "fish" smell.