A Review: Methods of Smoking for the Quality of Smoked Fish

Fish that have been caught are susceptible to decay and damage which are influenced by the level of acidity, weather, processing and storage methods, and temperature during transportation. This causes losses to the fishery business. One way that can be used to reduce the damage and spoilage of fish is through smoking. The purpose of this review article is to describe various methods of fish smoking, the chemical composition of smoked fish, and the number of microbes present in smoked fish. Smoked fish still contains nutrients such as protein, lipids, fiber, amino acids, minerals, and vitamins. The growth of microbes, especially those that are pathogenic, is inhibited and even some microbes cannot grow so that smoked fish is still good for human consumption. The microbes that cannot grow include Vibrio spp, yeast, mold, and Salmonella sp. Hot smoking method uses a temperature of 30-90oC, while cold smoking uses a temperature of 30-40oC. The chemical composition contained in smoked fish such as water content, protein, ash content, crude fiber, amino acids, biogenic amines, minerals and phenols. While the microbiological content of smoked fish with hot and cold smoking methods has a TPC value according to smoked fish standards and is free from pathogenic microbes, fungi, yeast and molds.