Determination of Quality Changes in Traditional and Liquid Smoked Fish Pastirma Prepared from Meagre (Argyrosomus regius Asso, 1801)

In this study, the nutritional composition and the physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory quality parameters of traditional and liquid smoke-treated meagre pastirma were investigated under refrigerated storage conditions at +4 °C. For this purpose, analyses were conducted over a 120-day storage period on four different sample groups: traditional pastirma with fenugreek paste (FMP), traditional pastirma without fenugreek paste (MP), liquid smoke-treated with fenugreek paste (LSFMP), and liquid smoke-treated without fenugreek paste (LSMP). Moisture content in fresh fish, originally 71.63%, decreased to approximately 42–44% in all pastirma groups. Despite this notable reduction, statistical analysis revealed no significant differences in moisture levels among the processed groups (p > 0.05). Protein content increased to 30–33% following pastirma processing, and significant differences were observed between traditionally and smoke-treated samples (p