Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.

Oriental Electric Company, Ltd.

Tomoko Asahara

Minoru Ohashi

Nobuhiko Arakawa

Shuichi Sakamoto

A rapid, accurate and simple method is disclosed for determining an index of freshness of fish and mollusks. The index of freshness is expressed as the ratio of the combined molar concentration of inosine and hypoxanthine to the total molar concentration of the decomposition products of adenosine triphosphate. Each concentration is determined electrochemically from the amount of hydrogen peroxide produced when a sample extract from fish or mollusks is subjected to the action of certain enzymes. The emzymes used for inosine and hypoxanthine concentration are nucleoside phosphorylase and xanthine oxidase and for the concentration of the decomposition products of adenosine triphosphate are alkaline phosphatase, adenylic acid kinase, AMP deaminase and adenosine deaminase in a crude extract obtained from calf intestine, nucleoside phosphorylase and xanthine oxidase. Sodium azide may be added to the sample extract to inhibit errors in measurement caused by the presence of catalase.

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Tokyo, Japan

Tomoko Asahara