Freshness is one of the most important parameters of fish quality in most markets for fresh and lightly preserved fish. However, the role of this attribute in industrial processing of cod to salt-cured, dried salt-cured and finally desalted and rehydrated cod is not known. The aim of this work was to analyze the influence of cod freshness (ice stored for 0, 7 and 12 days) on the pile salting, drying and desalting operations with respect to mass transfer, sensory quality and microbial status. With respect to weight yield, and transport kinetics, the results obtained indicate that the main influence of cod freshness occurs during the salting operation, as the freshest raw material gives the lowest overall yield, and the lowest salt uptake. With respect to sensory quality and microbial status after desalting, the freshest raw material tended to give a harder fish with less flakiness. The content of spoilage bacteria immediately after desalting was slightly lower for freshest raw material than for the others, but the difference hardly had any influence on the storage stability of the product. However, the desalted fish from the freshest raw material had more different strains than the other raw materials after desalting. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.