Microbiological status of frozen dressed fish

Summary:- Since the frozen dressed fish and shellfish are subjected to the riskof contamination with various pathogens from different sources,primary during their presence in their aquatic environments andsecondary after being harvested for preparation, dressing (skinning,sticking, gutting and removal of fins) as well as preservation formarketing.Seventy five samples of frozen dressed Sole a, Tilapia nilotica andSquid (2 X 25 from each) were taken from different supermarkets andexamlned for sticking and tail regions organoleptically, baG\;Qr.i-,and mycologically.The organoleptic examination for the? samples revealed that allsamples could be considered sound except three samples of Solea andtwo samples of both Tilapia nilotica and Squid.The bacteriological examination revealed that the total colonycounts from the sticking and tail regions of frozen dressed Solea,Tilapia nilotice and Squid in an overall log-mean were 8.206 ± 7.535,8.044t7.•n3 and 7.631 ± 7.025 respectively.It was found that the total colony count of sticking region (log-mean 8.246 ± 7.423) was higher than that of tail region (log-mean 7.520Accordingly, there was a significant differences between the typesand regions but the interaction between them was non significant.The total psychrotrophic count of sticking region (log. mean 8.016 ±.199) was higher than that of tail region (log. mean 7.314 ± 6.759). Itwas found that the total psychrotrophic counts from sticking and tail