Microbiological quality of fermented fish silage

Abstract

Three batches of fermented silage (FS) were made using silver bellies along with Lactobacillus plantarum (5%), sodium benzoate and molasses. The result indicated that 10% molasses with Lb. plantarum and sodium benzoate yielded a stable silage with desirable pH of <4.5, whereas molasses at 6 or 8% did not produce stable silage and had high levels of H2S producing bacteria and total Enterobacteriaceae counts. The minimum pH attained was 4.0, 4.7 and 5.0 in 10, 8 and 6% molasses, respectively. Experiments were carried out to use material from previous FS as starter inoculum for converting fresh fish mince to silage using 1 colon 1, 1 colon 2, 1 colon 4, 1 colon 5 and 1 colon 10 ratios. Stable FS was added to fresh fish mince, to which the required amount of molasses (10%) and sodium benzoate (0.5%) were added. The results suggested that 14-day old FS can be used as starter culture at 1:5 ratio effectively to produce stable FS.