Smoked herring is a very popular traditional fish product widely consumed in Egypt. Nonetheless, rapid mould growth and lipid oxidation, with consequent short shelf life and loss of the essential characteristics, including the smoking color and flavor, are emerged as adverse problems during storage of this product. So, the aim of the present investigation was to assess the microbiological and chemical quality of smoked fish. A total of 100 samples of herring fish products represented by 50 packaged and 50 unpackaged smoked herring were collected from different supermarkets at El-Menofiea governorate in Egypte.
There was significance difference (p < 0.05) in Aerobic plat count (APC), staphylococcal count, Coliform, Mould & yeast between packaged and unpackaged samples. The chemical investigation of the examined packaged samples showed that the mean values of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) (mg/100g), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) (mg/Kg), free fatty acids (FFA) (mg %) and Histamine (mg/kg) were 9.4 ± 0.5, 0.37 ± 0.12, 2.5 ± 0.4 and 20 ± 2, respectively while, they were 12.9 ±1.2, 0.79 ± 0.2, 3.1 ± 0.18 and 43 ± 4 for unpackaged samples, respectively. So, the packaging considered very important factor in producing good quality smoked fish.