With the aim of reducing the ammonia content and improving the quality of meat from the blue shark, Prionace glauca, and salmon shark, Lamna ditropis, we evaluated the effect of soaking solutions containing 10% sucrose and 5% NaCI, with or without the addition of an aqueous extract suspension (AES) of rice bran (RB-AES), or fermented RB (FRB-AES) generated using Lactobacillus plantarum Sanriku-SUS and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Misaki-1 (FRB-AES-Misaki-1), or S. cerevisiae Sanriku-SUY2 (FRB-AES-SUY2). RB is a major by-product of rice polishing. Although the effect of the soaking treatments on ammonia content and preference ranking were not clear in the fresh shark meats, there was a significant effect for meat refrigerated at 10 degrees C for 2 and 4 days (not-so-fresh meat). In particular, FRB-AES-Misaki-1 treatment raised the preference ranking for chub mackerel, Pacific cod and chicken breast meat. These results suggest that FRB-AES-Misaki-1 can be used as a potential starter for the pretreatment of meat from blue sharks and other fish species. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.