QUALITY ASSESSMENT ON THE MICROBIAL LOAD OF SPICED CLARIAS GARIEPINUS

SUMMARY

The study revealed that in terms of microbial quality, spiced fish cracker of Clarias gariepinus is safe for consumption and the microbes present are similar to those of smoke-dried fish with little or no effect to man at low concentrations. Further preservation with natural preservatives such as ginger and garlic used for the study had significant effect on the microbial load of the fish cracker. A combination of both preservatives had a good effect on the fish samples but the best result was obtained by Garlic. Bacterial and fungal count were below the 5 x 105 cfu/g recommended by the International Commission of Microbial Specification for Food and Food Products (ICMS, 2002).