Pest and mould infestation of smoked shrimp and preventive measures for storage in cottage industry

Abstract

Samples of entire smoked shrimp (ESS) and smoked shrimp powder (SSP) were randomly collected from retail markets in South Benin to evaluate the quantitative and the qualitative infestation with moulds. Furthermore, polyethylene barrel has been tested for smoked shrimp storage and compared to palm branch basket used as traditional storage method. All the samples of both ESS and SSP examined were contaminated with moulds. Mould count were 2.4 and 2.5 Log₁₀ (CFU g^-1) for ESS and SSP, respectively. About 14 mould species from 6 genera were identified from stored smoked shrimp. <i>Aspergillus</i> genus was the predominant strain in the investigated samples, followed by <i>Epicocum</i>, <i>Mucor</i>, <i>Penicillium</i>, <i>Scopularus</i> and <i>Fusarium</i>. Storage in barrel preserves shrimp from pest and mould development, 6 weeks longer than storage in baskets.