STUDY OF THE ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES AND MICROBIAL LOAD OF SMOKED DRIED CLARIAS GARIEPINUS PRESERVED USING DIFFERENT STORAGE MATERIALS: CARTON, POLYETHYLENE AND BASKET

This research focused on evaluating the organoleptic qualities and microbial load of smoked dried Clarias gariepinus preserved with three different storage materials: polyethylene, carton, and basket. A total of 20 kg of fish was smoked in a smoking charcoal kiln. Following the smoking process, the fish was stored for 45 days in the different materials: Treatment A (basket), Treatment B (carton), and Treatment C (polyethylene). A sensory evaluation was performed using a 9-point hedonic scale to measure various attributes, including texture, aroma, taste, and overall acceptability. The findings indicated that polyethylene (Treatment C) achieved the highest overall acceptability score of 6.0 after 45 days of storage, while both the basket and carton showed a significant decline to a score of 1.0, reflecting considerable loss of quality. Microbial analysis revealed the presence of E. coli, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus spp., Bacillus spp., and Pseudomonads spp.. The carton (Treatment B) recorded the highest microbial load with a bacterial count of 94.33 × 10^6 cfu/ml, followed by the basket (18.44 × 10^6 cfu/ml) and polyethylene (2.45 × 10^6 cfu/ml). Significant differences (p < 0.05) in microbial counts were observed across all storage materials. The study concluded that polyethylene is the most effective storage medium for maintaining both sensory and microbial quality in smoked fish.