Microbial contribution to 14 biogenic amines accumulation in refrigerated raw and deep-fried hairtails (Trichiurus lepturus)

Biogenic amines (BAs) produced by microbial decarboxylation of amino acids are crucial toxic nitrogenous compounds in fish. An optimized ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) method with simple pretreatment was established to detect 14 BAs in both raw (control check, CK) and deep-fried (DF) hairtails. This method exhibited a good linear relationship with average recoveries of 73.3–120.0 % and relative standard deviations of 2.5–10.0 %, respectively. The total BAs in CK and DF hairtails decreased sharply to 338.2 and 25.3 mg/kg on the 9th day, respectively. Four BAs, including cadaverine (CAD), histamine (HIS), tyramine (TYR), and putrescine (PUT) accounted for 92.5–99.9 % of total BAs were selected as the dominant BAs. Bacterial analysis showed that the abundance of DF was relatively low. Further correlation analysis proved that Vibrio had a significant ( p  < 0.05) positive correlation with total BAs and could be the main BA-producing bacterium in DF hairtail. This work provides new evidence of the accumulation of BAs in refrigerated hairtail.