The Torry Freshness Score is a systematic scoring system, originating in the UK, for the freshness of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

, based on an objective sensory assessment method. The tester(s) will smell the fish

gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they ar ...

odour to assess the state of freshness. Fish are ranked on a numeric scale from 0 to 10. 10 is the highest score for newly-caught fish, 7 is in the neutral range, 6 is at the 'borderline', and fish scoring of 3 or lower is considered spoiled. Customers will generally reject fish when its Torry score is 6 or lower, which indicates that the fish has been on ice for 11 days or more. The test may be performed on both raw and cooked (without seasoning or other ingredients) fish, and the criteria are generally fish-species specific. The results of evaluation generally correlate to the presence and density of

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

s that cause spoilage, as a lower score implies a greater presence of such microorganisms. The test relies on human sensory perception as the input, although recently electronic tools have been developed to validate the readings. Generally the test is important and relevant to daily activities in fish marketing. The scale was originally developed at the Torry Research Station of the

Central Science Laboratory The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) was an executive agency of the UK government branch, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). It is now part of the Food and Environment Research Agency, which is in turn part of DEFR ...

References

External links

Torry Scale scoresheets
Scoresheets for Torry Scale assessment of various types of fish, from the Sea Fish Industry Authority. Fishing industry {{measurement-stub