Microbiological status of fish products on retail markets in the Republic of Bulgaria

The purpose of the study was to determine the microbiological status of 161 samples cooled and frozen fish products collected from retail markets in the Republic of Bulgaria. The highest total viable counts (TVCs) in cooled fish products were established for silver carp (7.30 log cfu/g), Black sea roach (7.28 log cfu/g) and trout (7.11 log cfu/g), followed by common carp (6.81 log cfu/g), vacuum packed trout fillets (6.39 log cfu/g) and horse mackerel (5.90 log cfu/g). The highest Aeromonas spp. load was established in cooled trout (5.89 log cfu/g) and vacuum packed trout fillets (5.63 log cfu/g), followed by cooled silver carp (4.95 log cfu/g), common carp (4.09 log cfu/g) and horse mackerel (2.68 log cfu/g). Among frozen fish products, the highest microbial contamination was detected in frozen sprats (4.43 log cfu/g), followed by trout (4.27 log cfu/g) and mackerel (4.10 log cfu/g). Aeromonas spp. were not found out in Black sea roach and frozen fish samples. The relative proportion of Aeromonas spp. out of total microbial counts was the highest for vacuum-packed trout fillets (88.1%), followed by trout (82.8%), silver carp (67.8%), common carp (60.1%) and horse mackerel (45.4%). Cooled silver carp, Black sea roach and trout were highly contaminated with microorganisms. The significant number of contaminated cooled fish products and the high load of Aeromonas spp. pose a risk for the health of consumers.