International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Research

Authors
Ahmed H Al-Harbi, Abdulmohsen I Al-Asous

Abstract
This study was conducted to monitor the total mesophilic and psychrotrophic aerobic bacterial counts, pH and TVB-N value of ten species of wild groupers stored in ice for 18 days. The total mesophilic and psychrotrophic aerobic bacterial counts and the TVB-N value of all the ten wild species of groupers were significantly increased (p < 0.05) during the storage. The pH values and TVB-N content of the groupers muscles during the 18 days of storage in ice were ranged from 6.4 to 7.2 and from 21.0 to 45.4 mg/100 g respectively. The total mesophilic and psychrotrophic aerobic bacterial counts of the grouper species stored in ice were ranged from 4.20 to 7.67 log cfu/g and from 4.41 to 7.88 log cfu/g respectively. Strong and positive correlation was exhibited between TVB-N and the total mesophilic and psychrotrophic aerobic bacterial counts (r =0.949 - 0.989), (r =0.963 - 0.994), respectively. This suggested that the total mesophilic and psychrotrophic aerobic bacterial counts and the TVB-N methods which have been used in this study may be considered as a useful indicators of the freshness quality of groupers muscle during ice storage.