Keeping quality of vacuum-packed smoked sardine fillets: microbiological aspects

The effect of mixed smoking (2 h at 30 degrees C and 45 min at 75 degrees C was studied on the keeping quality of lean and fatty sardine fillets from fish caught in the Mediterranean Sea in March and June, respectively. Raw material for smoking included both fresh and frozen sardine fillets. Microbiological and sensory analyses were performed over the storage period, which lasted for 120 days at 0 +/- 1 degrees C. Smoking reduced the viable microbial flora values from 3-5 x 10(4) cfu/g to 2 x 10(2) cfu/g. The antimicrobial action of smoking, combined with that of vacuum packaging, had the effect of producing a gram-positive flora made up mainly of lactic acid bacteria. A practical consequence of this was to extend the shelf life of the smoked sardines for a period of 4 months. Frozen storage of samples at -18 degrees C for 6 months prior to smoking affected the behaviour of the microbial flora during cold storage at 0 degrees C, but did not affect the behaviour of the flora over a period of 3 months frozen storage, since the initial numbers of bacteria decreased and microbial growth was retarded. Furthermore, at the end of the storage period, the number of bacteria in the samples of frozen fatty sardines were higher than in the samples of frozen lean sardine. Physical conditions, therefore appear to exert an influence on bacterial growth. Sulphite-reducing Clostridia were not detected during the storage period.