Département Sciences Alimentaires et Nutrition, Université de Ngaoundéré, École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Agro Industrielle, B.P. 455 Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
A survey based on thirty units of kilishi manufacturing units "kilishierie" was conducted in the three regional cities of North Cameroon (Ngaoundéré, Garua and Marua), in order to characterize the actors, their organization, their technology, their building and perception of kilishi quality (a dried meat or smoked meat sliced, seasoned with a cocktail of ingredients and roasted or not over wood fire). It appeared from this survey that, the technical system was 77% dominated by the Hausa, 47% were cameroonians, 27% nigerans and 3% nigerians. The organization was essentially tribal with very few relations between the actors of the different production units. The production technology varies from one producer to another and according to the spaces, mainly in the technique of unwinding, drying and the formulation of seasoning for coating the slices of dried meat. The meat used for kilishi production came from 61% of Goudali zebu, 30% Bororo zebu and 9% Fulani zebu. Of the 105 carcass muscles, only 09 muscles (slice tender, sirloin steak, walnut lodge, round of lodging, fillet, rump, scoter, slice and chuck) were used and implied the frenetic research for noble meat. The investigation revealed two types of unwinding meat, the 15cmx5cmx5cm and along the muscle and 2 drying modes (drying in the sun and dry-smoking), which resulting in a dozen of types of kilishi. The construction and perception of quality by actors at the level of all unit operations were identified. The main limiting factors of the technical system were related to the variability of the quality and the availability of meat, the technical constraint of the unwinding techniques, the practice of uncontrolled drying and packaging. The major consequences of these factors are the low hygienic value of the product and its variability. The control of these factors is therefore an important issue for the improvement of this technical system. The annual production was estimated at about 132.5 tons of kilishi for a cash value of about 1.650 000 000 FCFA.