Abstract:
This study was conducted at the Sudan University of Science and
Technology, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Science, to identify the
bacterial load on fresh and chilled fresh fish. This study was carried out on 36
fish samples, 18 Tilapia fish (Oreochromis niloticus) and 18 catfish (Clarias
lazera), at the period from November 2009 to March 2010. Samples were
collected from El-morada fish market and pre-chilled with ice in thermostatic
container then, divided into three groups (fresh, iced and refrigerated). The first
VIII
group was tested fresh, the second was tested after icing from 4 – 7 days and
the third tested after refrigerated from 4 – 7 days. The studied samples were
tested microbiologically and the results were 8.4×105 and 1.7×105 CFU/gm
for fresh Tilapia and fresh catfish respectively. For 4 days iced samples the
result was 3.2×105 and 9.3×105 CFU/gm for Tilapia and catfish respectively,
for 7 days iced samples the result were 1.7×106 and 1.3×106 CFU/gm for
Tilapia and catfish respectively. The result of refrigerated samples for 4 and 7
days were 2.1×106 and 1.1×107 CFU/gm for Tilapia and 8.8×106 and 1.6×107
CFU/gm catfish, respectively. The results of the total bacterial count indicated
that the highest contamination steps were the process that tilapia and catfish
were packed in polyethylene bags after chilled storage at 4˚c for 7 days, and
that Tilapia and catfish showed the level of contamination as 1.1×107 and
1.6×107 cfu\g, respectively. Therefore, total bacterial counts results were over
the standard value in TACFS 7001 – 2004 (Thai Agricultural Commodity of
Food Standard). While the amount of bacterial count of Tilapia and catfish
stored in ice for 7 days were 1.7×106 and 1.6×106 cfu\g, respectively. Also the
results showed a significant difference (P < 0.05) between iced and
refrigerated samples
