Cold water fish are less stable. Fish muscle have certain associated problems like endogenous enzymes, free amino acids and small peptides etc. The functional properties have limited use as restructured fish products. Lipids from fish contain high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The stability of fish lipids is short due to their poly - unsaturated nature.
Bacterial breakdown is very similar to the red meats and the microbial flora is similar.
One spoilage characteristic found in fish and not in muscle foods is trimethylamine formation. This odoriferous amine is responsible for the fish smell associated with spoiling fish. The amount of trimethylamine formation is often used as an index of fish quality. Scombroid poisoning is another problem associated with fish in which the histidine gets converted to histamine which causes allergic reactions in consumers. Cholesterol content is very high in shell fish.