Drying of Fish and Meat for Scientific Preservation with reference to the methods used by Plain Tribals of the Brahmaputra Valley

Abstract

Blessed with the bounties of nature, Assam can boasts of its water resources be it for the mighty Brahmaputra River and its numerous tributaries, the various beels and swamps across its topography that provides for the occurrence of a large variety of fresh water fishes. However, despite the availability of a large quantity of fresh water fishes especially those with commercial importance, at times it becomes difficult to meet the daily demands of a largely fish eating population of the State. Also, fishing is prohibited during the early monsoon months owing to the fish breeding season. Further, the supply of fish through Government agencies and State Fishery Department is not uniform and constant especially in the remote areas. Therefore large sections of plain tribe population have taken to the art of fish preservation to meet their daily requirement through traditional methods of sun- drying, salting and smoking. Besides these traditional methods, fishes are also preserved by pit-curing, grinding them into powdered form along with addition of spices to enhance its shelf life as well as taste. The dried fishes are not just for household consumption during the lean season, but also help the people to make their livelihood through selling it in the market. However, it has been observed that the shelf life of these dried fishes is quite less. In light of these, the present research aims at exploring the factors behind deterioration of the quality of dried fish and meat by analyzing different samples of dried fish and meat specifically by the plain tribes collected from different places of the Brahmaputra valley. It also recommends certain steps to be followed during the preservation stage to increase the shelf life of dried fish and meat. These steps do not involve any sophisticated technology and are quite low cost.