In fish sauce production, microorganisms are associated with the fermentation process; however, the sequential changes in the bacterial communities have never been examined throughout the period of fermentation. In this study, we determined the bacterial floras in a fish sauce mash over 8 months, using three different culture media and 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis. During the first 4 weeks, viable counts of non-halophilic and halophilic bacteria decreased and were dominated by Staphylococcus species. Between 4 and 6 weeks, halophilic and highly halophilic bacterial counts markedly increased from 10(7) to 10(8) cfu/g, and the predominant species changed to Tetragenococcus halophilus. The occurrence of T. halophilus was associated with an increase of lactic acid and a reduction of pH values. In contrast, non-halophilic bacterial counts decreased to 10(6) cfu/g by 6 weeks with Bacillus subtilis as the dominant isolate. Clone library analysis revealed that the dominant bacterial group also changed from Staphylococcus spp. to T. halophilus, and the changes were consistent with those of the floras of halophilic and highly halophilic isolates. This is the first report describing a combination approach of culture and clone library methods for the analysis of bacterial communities in fish sauce mash.

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In order to make effective reuse of kamaboko processing wastes and to minimize the amount of waste disposal, the production of two kinds of fish sauces was tried on a small industrial scale from the wastes with or without the addition of the meat of deepsea smelt (Glossanodon semifasciatus). They were fermented for 6 months at room temperature using salt and koji mold. As a control, a fish sauce was also produced only from the deepsea smelt meat. The recovery of fish sauce from the initial mashed mixture ranged between 75 and 79%, depending on the ingredients in the three fish sauce products. The total nitrogen content of the waste sauce and the mixed sauce was lower than that of the control. The levels of the original additives to kamaboko products, b-carotene and sorbic acid, were very low in these fish sauces. The taste-active components of the waste sauce and mixed sauces were lower than those of the control. Sensory evaluation revealed that the former two waste sauces were less bitter and higher in saltiness than the control. However, no difference was found in umami taste between these products. These findings suggest that the wastes from kamaboko processing factories could be reused as fish sauce for food condiments. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSRecent development in the food industry in Japan has enabled the surimi-based products to be mass produced and standardized even in the fish gel, kamaboko trade. However, a serious problem has arisen in the development of kamaboko processing through the discharge of the wastes, i.e., nonstandard products or fragments, from kamaboko processing factories. It is clear that the waste from kamaboko processing factories is transformed effectively into fish sauce by using soy sauce koji mold. As a result, the amount of the discharged wastes from kamaboko factories are able to be minimized because the liquefaction ratio of the fish sauce mushes (moromi) from the wastes after fermentation was high and the products have a high umami taste and agreeable soy sauce-like flavor. product groups such as surimi-based products, frozen products, dried products, canned products, salted products and fermented products (Funatsu 1998). Of these products, surimi-based products are widely and largely consumed in Japan and many kinds of the products such as fried, broiled, steamed, boiled and flavored kamaboko, and broiled chikuwa bs_bs_banner Journal of Food Quality