FISH PRESERVATION

PRIMARY PROCESSING—ON-BOARD
HANDLING
• first consideration should be to bring the fish aboard alive and in
good condition
• For high quality, fish should be chilled as quickly as possible to 0°C
• most efficient to put the ice and fish together
>=6H
in a covered box or hold area. Flakes or small
pieces of ice provide the most effective cooling,
,else live well
• Large irregular pieces can damage the fish
SECONDARY PROCESSING
• purpose
 to convert the raw fish into a form that is still acceptable to the
consumer and that has a longer shelf life
SALTING
DRYING
SMOKING
BOILING
FERMENTATION
CANNING
Salting
• An end in itself, or as part of a smoking or drying process, has been used
for thousands of years to preserve marine products
• has no adverse effect on the value of fish protein
• Osmotic properties of salt
• at a conc. of 6-10 % in the fish (normally 70-80 % water), the activity of
most bacteria that cause spoilage will be inhibited
Dry salting - for fish with high water content
 kench salting
Wet salting (brine salting, and pickle salting)-for tropical applications,
especially with fatty fish
• Halophilic or salt-tolerant bacteria or molds may grow on incompletely
dried salted fish or on dry salted fish that have become moist; Safe for
pickle cured since aerobic; This oxygen-poor environment also reduces
rancidity in fatty fish.
Drying
Sun-drying
Solar-drying
Solar Agro-waste powered drier
Heat pump drying – low T
Freeze-drying – low T&P
Osmotic dehydration
Smoking
• traditional preservation technique to prepare fish products with long
storage lives
• Smoke contains substances that kill bacteria, thus helping to preserve the
product. The heat also dries the fish.
• often fish are salted before smoked
• In tropical countries, fish are generally heavily smoked at relatively high
temperatures so that they are also cooked.
hot smoking, temp may remain bet. 60°-110°C for 4-12 h. This is usually
long enough to eliminate the non-sporulating spoilage bacteria.
• spores of Bacillus subtilis and B. mesentericus survive even with longer
periods of smoking. The bactericidal action of the smoke is considerably
increased by the presence of salt in the fish.
Boiling
• Boiling fish in water, a short-term preservation, is accepted
throughout SEA
• applications in other tropical areas where high humidity and rainfall
during part of the year make drying difficult
• allows distribution of the catch to market with low-cost equipment
and facilities
• denatures the fish proteins and also eliminates many of the bacteria
present. Salt may also be added before, during, or after boiling to help
retard spoilage.
Fermentation
• In many Southeast Asian villages, a long tradition of preparing more
flavorful products through fermentation of fish and shrimp has been
developed.
• generally through hydrolysis in the presence of high salt
concentrations, products have good keeping qualities
• nutritive value of the fish or shrimp is retained and the processes are
relatively simple
• In some cases, the fish or shrimp retain their original form, but
usually the end product is a liquid or paste.
Fermented food products
• Bagoong na isda is prepared by mixing three parts of fish with one
part of salt and enclosing the mixture in a fermentation jar. With
occasional stirring to keep the salt concentration uniform, the
fermentation is complete in 60-90 days.
• shrimp product is made in the same fashion, but the fermentation is
complete in only 3 days.