Microbiological assessment of locally dried fish in Oman : technical note

Abstract EN

The presence of microorganisms is one of the major factors affecting the quality of dried fish.

In this project, a number of analytical tests were used to verify the presence of biochemical contamination in dried fish, as well as to propose an engineering solution to reduce the incidence of these contaminations.

Two types of fish samples (anchovy and shark) were collected from two local markets (Buraimi and Seeb).

The analyzed parameters included Total Fungal Count (TFC), Total Viable Count (TVC) and enumeration of Escherichia coli (E.

coli), Staphylococcus aureus and Coliforms species in dried fish.

The results indicated that the anchovy collected from Seeb market had the highest TVC and TFC (TVC= 5.59×105 cfu/ ml, TFC= 3.60×104 cfu/ml) compared to all other samples.

It could be recommended to dry fish under more hygienic conditions using solar drier instead of direct drying on beach sands.-