Tartaric acid and garlic have proved highly satisfactory as pickling agents when used in combination, giving fishery products of good appearance, texture, taste and shelf life. Full details of the pickling method are given

Devadasan, K.

Joseph, K.G.

Muraleedharan, V.

Aquatic Commons

PART 
BSTRACTS D NEWS 
OTE: 
PICKLE CURING OF FISH USING TARTARIC ACID AND 
GARLIC AS PRESERVATIVES 
Pickling has been one of the most 
popular methods of fish preservation in 
our country from olden times. The 
conventional Colombo curing using goru-
kha puli ( Garcina cambogiea) as preser-
vative has been extensively practised for 
preservation of oil sardine, mackerel etc. 
especially along the west coast. Severai 
attempts have been made for evolving 
better preservatives for pickled products 
(Vasavan and Varma 1959; Rao, Valsan 
and Nair 1962; Rao and Vals~n 1962) 
and vinegar, Malabar tamarind, propionic 
acid etc. were suggested as good preser-
vatives. But since propionic acid is not 
manufactured indigenously this otherwise 
good method has not become very popular 
in commercial practice. 
Colombo curing has got certain defects. 
The gorukha puli imparts an unattractive 
dark appearance to the product. Its texture 
is tough and fibrous and salt content is 
generally high. Because of these, the use 
of gorukha puli is nowadys avoided and 
fish curers mostly preserve their bulk cat-
ches in saturated brine in big cement tanks. 
The brine, wnich is changed frequently, 
is kept saturated by the addition of solid 
salt at intervals. This method does not 
bring down the pH of the pickle medium 
]56 
~o sufficiently low level, thereby causing 
Increased bacterial action and spoilage. 
Such products are more susceptible to the 
attack of red haJophiles though the dark 
unattractive appearance of the colombo 
cured products is avoided. 
In view of these ·facts, tartaric acid 
was tried as preservative for pickle cured 
fishes. The preservative action of gorukha 
puli is due to its action of lowering the pH 
(Sreenivasan and Venkataraman 1957). But 
if tartaric acid irse!f is used instead of 
gorukha puli the pH is lowered without 
impairing the appearance of the pickled 
fish. But from trial experiments it was 
observed that though tartaric acid has 
good bactericidal activity its bacteriostatic 
effect was not satisfactory. So the method 
was slightly modified by incorpcrating a 
little garlic in the pickled medium. Garlic 
also was not very effective when used 
alone as a preservative for pickled fishery 
products. But when used in combination 
with tartaric acid, garlic gave highly satis-
factory products of good appearance, tex-
ture, taste and shelf life. This note reports 
results of the studies conducted with these 
preservatives on the pickle curing of some 
common cheap food fishes like silver belly, 
Fish. T echnol. 
'PidHe curing of fisfi 
cat fish, sole, ribbon fish etc. which are 
not properly utilized at present. 
Fresh silver belly, cat fish, sole, ribbon 
fish etc. were procured from the landing 
centres. They were cleaned, washed and 
pickled in glass Jars in two lots (1) as is 
done commercially at present without any 
special preservative other than salt, and 
(2) using tartaric acid and garlic as pre-
servative, for comparison. The composition 
of the pickle mediums are given below: 
Sample 
1 
2 
Salt : Fish Preservative 
1 4 
1 4 2% tartaric acid and 
2% garlic (on the wt. 
of refined salt). 
Sufficient saturated brine was added 
after 48 hours in both cases to keep the 
samples immersed. The spoilage in these 
samples was assessed by the change in the 
total volatile nitrogen. (Table II). 
From the table it can be seen that in 
all the cases the tartaric acid-garlic sample 
remained in good condition for more 
than 16 weeks whereas the control sample 
spoiled within 8 weeks itself. The faint 
garlic smeU and taste of the product was 
also relished by the laboratory taste panel. 
The method has several advantages: 
(l) it overcomes the dark appearance of 
colombo cured products, and gives an att-
ractive product of good taste, texture and 
shelf life (2) the preservatives used are 
cheap, locally available and harmless. 
We are thankful to Shri. M. R. Nair, 
Officer-In-Charge, C. I. F. T. (Processing 
Division) for his interest in the wor_k. We 
are also thankful to Shri. G. K. Kuriyan, 
Director of the Institute for his permission 
to publish this note. The technical assi-
stance of Shri. P. Sadanandan of this labo-
ratory is also gratefully acknowledged. 
TABLE I 
Initial analysis of Pickled samples: 
l. ControL 2. Tartaric acid (2%) and garlic (2%) treated. 
Cat fish Ribbon fish Silver belly Sole 
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 
Moisture 48.42 54.54 52.75 54.91 55.89 52.67 52.14 52JO 
Chloride 
(%DWB) 28.14 25.96 35.34 34.35 28.38 27.47 38.58 38.12 
VOL No. 2 1975 157 
-VI 
00 
~ 
u,' 
:::s-o 
~ g. 
~ 
<::> 
~ 
Storage in 
Weeks 
Initial 
4 
8 
12 
16 
TABLE II 
Total Volatile Nitrogen in Pickled products. 
I. Control 2. 2% Tartaric acid 2% garlic treated. 
Total Volatile Nitrogen 
Cat fish Ribbon fish Silver belly Sole 
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 
30.97 29.75 38.45 37.96 31.5 28.78 28.4 26.75 
---, 
34.10 32.52 68.21 52.21 55.72 33.12 66.65 42.4 
51.48 36.17 88,64 58.54 76.12 39.23 116.2 50.52 
75.41 42.5) 107.09 68.21 102.24 48.91 168.2 59.14 
Physical observation 
x 
("") 
Thin layers of fungus on the surface of ~ 
brine in control samples. Tartaric acid and g 
garlic samples in good condition. ~· 
<,(:) 
Heavy fungus and foul smell in control -2... 
samples. 'Red' also in control sample of ? 
pickled sole. All tartaric acid - garlic sam- ~ 
pies in good condition. 
Heavy fungus and maggots and also 'red' 
in control samples - completely spoiled. 
Tartaric acid garlic samples in good con-
dition. 
-~~~--.--~--· ~·=->---~-,~- --
92.40 48.85 146.75 78.02 128.32 54.92 192.56 65.12 
Control samples completely spoiled in all 
cases-discarded-Tartaric acid garlic samples 
in good condition. 
Pidi:le curing of fisrt 
REFERENCES 
A. 0. A. C. Official methods of analysis; 
Association of Official Agricultural 
Chemists, I 960. 9th Edn. 
Rao, S. V. S., A. P. Valsan and M. R. Nair. 
1958. Indian, J. Fish., 5, 2 : 326. 
C. I. F. T. Unit, 
West Hill, 
Calicut-5. 
VoL 12 No. 2 1975 
Rao. S V S, A. P. Valsan and M. R. Nair, 
1962. Proc. Indo. Pac. Fish. Counc. 
10, H, Technical Paper. 
Sreenivasan A and R. Venkataraman, 1957. 
Proc. 2nd. Int. Symp. Food mtcro~ 
bioi., 117. 
Vasavan, A. G. and K. G. Varma. 1959. 
Curr. Sci. 28: 153. 
K. Devadasan 
V. M uraleedharan, 
K, GeDrge Joseph, 
159 


Pickle curing of fish using tartaric acid and garlic as preservatives

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Pickle curing of fish using tartaric acid and garlic as preservatives

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