Quality aspects of fish silage and fish meal from marine trash fish

Abstract

For promoting better utilization of by-catches from existing trawI operation in Bay of Bengal, potential of fish silage was evaluated as fish feed ingredient against fish meal. The biochemical composition of raw silage and dried silage is quite similar to commercial fish meal but marked differences are observed in case of laboratory made fish meat The most wanted protein contents were 14%, 52.9% and 64% for silage, dried silage and laboratory made fish meal respectively. After 90 days of storage, only minor changes were detected in the chemical composition. On the other hand, total bacterial count of these product were initially 1.6 x 10(2) cfu/g, 3 x 10(4) cfu/g and 1.7 x 10(5) cfu/g which after 90 days of storage showed 1.5 x 10(4) Cfu/g 2.9 x 10(6) cfu/g and 1.7 x 10(7) cfu/g for silage, dried silage and fish meal respectively. Total yield and production cost also indicate fish silage as a potential fish feed ingredient.