Smoked African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Sampled from Two Markets and Occurrence of Microbes

The study was carried out to assess some microbiological qualities of smoked African catfish, Clarias gariepinus retailed in Sango and Ota markets in Ogun state, Nigeria. Six smoked fish retailers were randomly selected from the markets and 36 fish samples were collected. The samples of smoked catfish were assessed weekly for a period of six weeks for microbiological parameters such as Total plate count (TPC), Total coliforms count (TCC), Staphylococcus count and mould count. In this study, the microbial load of the smoked Clarias gariepinus samples retailed in the two study sites increased weekly during the period of storage. TPC increased from 4.75±0.014 log10 CFU/g for smoked samples from Ota market, retailer 1 (OMR1) in week 0 to 5.11 ±0.021 log10 CFU/g for samples from Ota market, retailer 3 (OMR3) in week 5. TCC ranged from 1.47±0.001 log10 CFU/g to 2.43±0.049 log10 CFU/g; Staphylococcus from 2.15±0.070 log10 (CFU/g) to 2.66±0.014 log10 (CFU/g) and 1.82 ±0.070 log10 CFU/g to 2.92±0.071 log10 CFU/g for mould counts. The smoked Clarias gariepinus from the markets could not keep well till the 6th week. Hence, it can be inferred that smoked catfish with moisture content of about 10% or less will have a shelf life of about 4 - 5 weeks under ambient storage conditions before the effect of spoilage microorganisms.