Abstract

In the Caribbean, fresh fish is a common food source. Fish including Carite (Scomberomorus brasiliensis) are sold daily on the highways by “highway fishmongers". To prevent deterioration, the fish may be sprinkled with a citrus-based juice or salt (NaCl) or kept chilled (10 °C). Although this strategy reduces bacterial growth on the outer regions (skin) of the fish, it is not clear whether this treatment also attenuates bacterial growth and proliferation in the muscles of the fish. This paper seeks to investigate the microbiological loads within the fillet fish muscle tissues and the frozen packages of the muscles of fish sold at supermarkets (single and chain operators). All assays show a constant value of the total aerobic bacteria throughout the specific purchased (single operators and chain supermarkets; and highway fishmongers) and different controlled storage conditions (-15 °C, 1 °C; and 29 °C). A one-way ANOVA test (α= 0.05) indicates no significant difference among the tissue of fish purchased from the four different locations, with a marked effect at the different storage temperatures. The mean Total Bacterial Count increased eight times when the storage temperature increased from -15° to 29 °C and four times when the storage temperature increased from 1° to 29 °C.

Keywords: Scomberomorus brasiliensis (Carite); Total bacterial count; Supermarket operators; Highway fishmongers