Effect of natural preservatives on the organoleptic characteristics and storage stability of smoked <i>Heterotis niloticus</i>

Abstract

Improvement of consumer’s palatability of Heterotis niloticus was investigated by value addition with natural spices and salt to improve its  palatability and shelf-life. The major problem of H. niloticus is its poor taste, hence low demand and poor consumer’s acceptability which affects the market value. The objective of this study was to improve the palatability and shelf-life of H. niloticus using selected natural spices. Heterotis niloticus, procured and treated with natural spices and salt were allowed to drain for one hour, subjected to charcoal fired smoking kiln for 12 hours, cooled and stored for 8 weeks at ambient temperature before microbial analysis. The result showed that treatment 1 had the best quality (37.7%), followed by control sample (34.7%), and treatment 2 (28.9%), while the least was treatment 3 (21.6%). Microbial analysis shows that no Salmonella, Coliforms and E. coli were detected from the samples after smoking. Staphylococcus aureus count ranged from 2 × 10² to 9 × 10² but it was not detected in treatment 1. Improvement of the consumers’ palatability of H. niloticus and improved storage stability by spicing methods improved the  poor taste of H. niloticus which has been discriminated despites excellent muscle quality.

Key words: Heterotis niloticus, organoleptic, spicing, microbial analysis