Shelf life of dried products from small indigenous fish species under various packing and storage conditions

The overall quality of five SIS products was found in good condition up to 2 months storage on the basis of organoleptic, biochemical and bacteriological characteristics and all the products was excellent in sealed packed condition up to 45 days of storage.However, quality of the products stored in open air atmospheric temperature was found excellent for first 15 days.In an average the initial moisture content was in the range of 13.5 to 15.0% with highest moisture content in puti and lowest in chapila. At the end of the 60 days themoisture content reached to the range of 18.5 to 19.0% which was more or less near the recommended limit of 16% for dried fishery products. The moisture content beyond therecommended limit as the storage period increased further and at the end of 90 days the moisture content increased to the range of 22.9 to 24% when organoleptically the product quality became very poor. The changes in the value of total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N), peroxide value (PO), moisture and aerobic plate count (APC) of solar tunnel dried products in sealed polythene packages were investigated during 60 days of storage. There was little or no differences in TVB-N, PO and bacterial load of each species packed under various polythene density. The initial TVB-N values were in the range of 10.30 to 12.40 mg/100g of the samples. TVB-N value increased slowly up to the end of the storage period and was to in the range of 46.20 to 57.00 mg/1 00 g of sample. Initially the peroxide values (P.O.) were in the range of 6.54 to 8.40 m.eq./kg oilof the samples. During 60 days of storage, P.O. values increased slowly and at the end of the storage period these values reached to the range of 22.00 to 25.30meq./kg of sample.The initial APC was in the range 5.3xl04-7.3x104 CFU/g. The bacterial load increased slowly and at the end of the 60 days storage period reached to the range 6.6x106 - 8.6x107CFT/g.