author(s)
Obichere Oluebube P and Omorodion, Nnenna JP

abstract
Fish is a major source of protein and its degradation keeps causing post- harvest losses and a decline in fish supply. Nowadays, preservatives are frequently used to keep fish from spoiling. The effects of using chemical preservatives (Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate) and locally prepared liquid smoke prior to smoking and oven drying of tilapia fish was carried out using standard microbiological methods. In the result obtained across Day 0 to Day 21 of storage, microbial load (THB, TF, TCC and TSC) ranged between 3.25-6.92 log₁₀ cfu/g for the control (Untreated samples) and zero/no count – 5.82 log ₁₀ cfu/g for the treated samples, after they samples were subjected to treatments prior to smoking and oven drying the THB count was reduced. Although, there were no significant difference p<0.05 between the treatments used. However, the greatest reduction was seen in the oven dried fish samples treated with potassium sorbate (ODPS). The microbiological load count of fish samples subjected to liquid smoke treatment exhibited the highest value after a storage period of 21 days, in contrast to fish samples treated with potassium sorbate, which had the lowest microbial load count after the same storage duration. Bacillus sp, Staphylococcus sp, Vibro sp, Micrococcus sp and Klebsiella sp were the most predominant bacterial species isolated from the treated samples while the isolated fungi were identified as Aspergillus sp, Saccharomyces sp, Penicillium sp, Fusarium sp, and Rhizopus sp. The result obtained proved that the treatments used on the fish samples effectively reduced the microbial count.