Study of Bacterial contamination of Vacuum packaged Fish obtained from Ahvaz market

Abstract Keeping health and nutritional value of the packed foods has a great value in food industries. Among the diverse methods of food processing and packaging, vacuum packaging is one of the best methods for a variety of food products, such as fish. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of such method in preventing of bacterial growth during preservation of fish fillets, four vacuum packed fish of Scomberomorus commerson, Saurida tumbil, Otolithes ruber, and Oreochromis niloticus were investigated. Using microbial cultivation followed by speciesspecific culture media and staining showed negative growth of Enterococcus sp., but positive growth of Escherichia coli and Listeria sp. Results showed that the highest microbial contamination of four studied fillets was as follow: Otolithes ruber> Oreochromis niloticus> Scomberomorus commerson > Saurida tumbil. Results also showed that as a variety of microbial species contamination, the most contaminated fillet belong to Oreochromis niloticus. Results of the present study showed that vacuum packaging was un-successful against the growth of the Escherichia coli and Listeria sp., but fully successful against the Enterococcus sp. In conclusion, it seems that vacuum packaging needs to be paired with other hygienic methods for keeping bacterial growth out of the fish fillets.