Title of Project:
Strategies to improve food safety and quality for fermented sea foods
Members :
- International Master’s Degree Program in Food Science,International College
- Assistant Professor Yung-Lin Chu
- International Master’s Degree Program in Food Science,International College
- Director of International Master’s Degree Program in Food Science Jia-Hsin Guo
Invited International Teachers and Students :
- Faculty of Natural Resources and Agro-Industry, Kasetsart University, Chalermphrakiat Sakon Nakhon Province Campus, Thailand.
- Chuenjit Chancharoonpong
Content of Research or Internship:
Fermented fish products were very general food in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan. Fish sauce, fish paste and shrimp paste are the most popular fermented fish products. However, there are lots of ways for making fermented fish sauce and paste, and some of them were made by the waste of fish or seafood. Therefore, it caused different quality and safety problem of fermented fish sauce and paste. One of important reason is the formation of biogenic amines which are basic nitrogenous compounds be occurring in meat, fish, cheese and wine products. It due to amino acid decarboxylation activities of microbes. Histamine, one of biogenic amines and high level of histamine may poisoning human such as food allergies.
Description of Performance:
Our research is promoting and educating students about food safety by collecting production information (raw material, making process, and quality control), analyzing product properties (pH, acidity, NaCl content) microbiological properties (aerobic plate count, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli) and the level of histamine in those fermented fish sauce and paste from different countries. In summary, the result show safety profile and risk of product from histamine in various kind of fermented fish sauce and paste which are usually consume as culture food in Southeast Asia country.