Mitochondrial activity as an indicator of scallop (Mizuhopecten yessoensis) adductor muscle in early cold storage

The purpose of this study was to reveal the role of mitochondria in indicating a change in the freshness of the adductor muscle of Mizuhopecten yessoensis during cold storage and hardening. The adductor muscle hardens after 96 h of cold storage and reaches the maximum degree of hardening in 6 h. In this study, after hardening (102 h), the muscle fiber structure obviously broke and curled, and the sarcomere structure disappeared at 150 h. After hardening (102 h), the morphology of the mitochondria changed, including swelling, cristea breaking and membrane structure disappearance. The arginine phosphate content decreased gradually from the initial 4.618 to 1.306 µmol/g at 48 h, and there was no further obvious change. The ATP content decreased from 6.02 to 1.07 µmol/g in 120 h. The mitochondrial membrane potential (Δφ) was measured by a fluorescence method (JC‐1). The changes in freshness could be divided into three classes according to the Δφ difference between the mitochondria in the adductor muscle after adding ADP and CCCP. Mitochondrial function was complete from 0 to 6 h; mitochondrial function began to decline at 6 to 48 h; and mitochondrial function completely disappeared after 48 h. The results showed that the mitochondrial membrane potential compared with other indicators could more sensitively reflect the changes in freshness during the cold storage hardening process of the adductor muscle. Practical Application It is very important to interprete the post‐mortem energy metabolism for controlling the muscle quality of Yesso scallop. The K value which was developed based on ATP‐related compounds is widely used in evaluating the freshness of seafood. Mitochondria is the main sites of cellular energy metabolism and the changes of its structure and activity can sensitively reflect the quality changes in muscle cell. It is expected to develop a more sensitive freshness evaluation index.