Conservation and storage of food with a lipidic content may unchain oxidative processes, causing modifications of sensorial characteristics and reduction of useful life. Phycocianin is a pigment of Spirulina platensis, which presents antioxidant proprieties. The objective of this work was to verify the antioxidant effect of phycocyanin during the storage of salted fish. The salted fish was produced with the pacu species (Piaractus mesopotamicus Holmberg, 1887), which was submitted to 5 treatments (T1: without addition of antioxidant; T2: with addition of synthetic antioxidant BHT in the concentration of 0.01%, T3, T4 and T5: with addition of phycocianin at concentrations of 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% respectively). Samples were analyzed at zero (0), 30 and 60 days of storage determining the physics-chemical quality through the index of TBA. The results showed that the addition of the natural antioxidant phycocianin caused the inhibition of the process of oxidation, with TBA index statistically equal (p>0.05) of that obtained with the use of synthetic antioxidant.
Lipidic peroxidation; oxidative process
