Biotechnology and Food microbiology laboratory, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Abobo-Adjamé, Abidjan, 02 BP 801, Abidjan 02, Côte d'Ivoire
This study was designed to describe the processing of a traditionally fermented fish named Adjuevan in Côte d'Ivoire. We studied the processing techniques, the percentage of salt used and the microflora composition of the Adjuevan prepared from Chloroscombrus chrysurus. The fermentation process is done in 4 or 7 steps respectively according to the size of fish: gutting, carving, washing, prefermentation, salting, fermentation and drying. Adjuevan is obtained with an average of 35.09% marine salt. A total of 72 samples of adjuevan were analysed. The Mean values of pH were 5.38 ± 0.27. The microbial load of adjuevan samples revealed a range of 2.1 105-2.8 105 cfu/g for the total count. The predominant microorganisms were lactic acid bacteria (1.3 103-1.2 104 cfu/g) followed by Bacillus (4.7 102- 3.3 103 cfu/g), with a frequency of isolation of 100%. Pseudomonas and E. coli were not detected in the adjuevan samples analysed but Staphylococcus was isolated with a prevalence of 60.65%. These contaminations can represent a risk for the consumers and also for the public health. It comes out that adjuevan is found not to be safe microbiologically.