Quality assessment of smoked herring fish in Egyptian markets

Abstract

In Egypt, smoked herring is frequently used as a traditional fish product. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the chemical and microbiological quality of smoked fish. A collection of 100 samples of smoked herring fish products packaged and unpackaged (50 of each) was gathered from various supermarkets at El-Menofiea, and yeast significantly differed (p < 0.05) between packaged and unpackaged samples. The chemical investigation of the examined packaged samples showed that the average concentrations of total volatile basic nitrogen (mg/100g), thiobarbituric acid (mg/Kg), free fatty acids (mg %), and Histamine (mg/kg) were 9.4 ± 0.5, 0.37 ± 0.12, 2.5 ± 0.4 and 20 ± 2, respectively while, they were 12.9 ± 1.2, 0.79 ± 0.2, 3.1 ± 0.18 and 43 ± 4 for unpackaged samples, respectively. Therefore, packaged smoked fish was more acceptable and considered low risk than unpackaged fish. So, the packaging is important in producing good quality smoked fish. Smoked herring Coliform Mold Histamine Quality