Bacteriological and sensory properties of smoke-dried fish stored at ambient temperature

The bacterial load and sensory characteristics of four species of fish (viz., Alestes nurse, Labeo pseudocoubie, Synodontis omias and Tilapia zillii) subjected to smoke-drying and stored at ambient temperature for four weeks were evaluated. The moisture content of fresh fish was reduced drastically to the levels ranging from 9 to 17% due to the smoking process. Changes occurred in the moisture content of the product during storage but most significantly during the first week when the samples all attained contents below 10% except for S. omias which had a slightly higher value. Smoke-dying reduced the bacterial counts of all the samples in the order of approximately 2 log units, but counts increased appreciably during the storage period attaining almost a 2-fold increase during the first week of storage and remained high thereafter . Sensory scores for smoke-dried fish were generally good for colour, smell, dryness, and general appearance. All the sensory parameters remained acceptable during the entire storage period although the range of scores for smell and dryness were of a higher magnitude than for colour and general appearance. Based on these observations it is suggested that subjecting the fish to additional smoke drying once every week would significantly increase their keeping quality. Keywords; Temperature, fish, smoke-drying, keeping-quality. [Global Jnl Agric Sci Vol.1(1) 2002: 21-25