Key Features:
No of Pages: 68
Introduction:
1.1 Background Information Fish is an important source of cheap first class protein, providing essential amino acids (Aremu et al., 2014), it is an indispensable source of micro nutrients (Okonji et al., 2016) and other elements for the maintenance of healthy body (Ravichandran et al., 2012; Ehigiator etal., 2015). The results of a study conducted by Sipe (2008) have shown a positive correlation between the amounts of fish consumed and life span of the consumer. Aremu et al. (2014) reported that majority of Nigerians, Americans and Japanese who depend on fish as their main source of protein have longer life span. In spite of the importance of fish and the fishing industry, fish is an extremely perishable commodity, spoiling soon after death, due to enzymatic and microbial actions, resulting indisagreeable taste, smell and texture, thereby reducing consumer acceptability (Garrow and James, 2004; Emine and Bahri, 2015). Various factors are responsible for fish spoilage,notable among these factors are fish health status, the presence of parasite, bruises and wounds on the skin and the mode by which the fish was captured (Omoruyi et al., 2016).Aremu et al. (2014) also asserted that high ambient temperature of the tropics are a major environmental factor prompting rapid spoilage of fish. Hence, careful handling and rapid processing are essential steps to overcome the problem of rapid fish spoilage.Preservation and processing are means of prolonging the shelf-life of fish products inacceptable quality through changes in texture, taste and appearance without adversely affecting the chemical nature of the product. Processing and preservation refers to some of the ways in which the mechanism which cause fish spoilage are slowed down or stopped(Ray, 2010). Fish processing on the other hand usually change the texture, taste, physical appearance of the fish so that deterioration is slowed or halted but the fish change characteristics according to the process used (Madu, 2016).
The main objectives of processing fish are to prevent increase in microbial load and other enzymatic reaction and keeping the fish in an acceptable way between the time of capture or harvest and consumption(Omoruyi and Abolagba, 2015). In order to avoid spoilage which leads inevitably to post harvest losses several methods of preservation can be employed to prolong the shelf life offish while still maintaining its nutritional, economical and physical content. They include drying, salting, freezing, canning, smoking (Akinola et al., 2006; Omoruyi et al., 2017).
Smoking of fish is a major way of preserving fish in Nigeria. Smoking of fish has the objective of preservation basically due to dehydration and high temperature of smoking(50 – 180oc) (Omoruyi and Ebhodaghe, 2017). Bacteriostatic, bacteriocidal and antioxidant functions of smoke and the dehydration effect of the process were used inadvertently by the early fish processors in the preservation of fish (Aremu et al., 2014). Although consumers are generally attracted by the flavour of smoke-dried fish, its nutritive value is of paramount important since every consumer wants to obtain good quality protein from fish consumption(Raffray et al., 2014). Acceptability of smoke-dried products however depends on the type of fuel material used(Yola and Timothy, 2012). Wood selection must be done with care as some wood like resinous types for example pine may impart unpleasant flavor and taste to the final product;while others like Euphobia species may be poisonous (The United Nations Development Fund for Women/UNIFEM, 2008). Although many wood types may be used as fuel for fish smoking among the many factors influencing the choice of wood, what is used depends on local availability. The fuel wood preferences of most fish smoker are also related to the physical characteristics of the wood and how they affect the smoked product (Yola and Timothy, 2012). Different fuel material may affect the quality of the smoked fish differently
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