Postharvest and nutritional loss assessment of fish at different handling stage from Genale River, Southeastern Oromia

Abstract

Post-harvest and nutritional loss assessment of fish was conducted between July 2014 and June 2015. A post-harvest loss was recorded from landing site and hotel. Nutritional loss between landing site and hotel was compared. From a total of 1581 kg of fish harvested, 1130 kg was Bagrus, 259 kg was Labeobarbus and 192 kg was Eel. From 176 kg of Bagrus harvested, 60 kg (34.09%) of quality deteriorated fish was discarded. Crude protein content has significantly decreased from 86.32% to 63.25% from landing site to hotel. The decrement of protein content is due to long distance transportation and high temperature have favored microbial growth which resulted in proteolysis and denaturation of protein by heat. It was concluded that the long distances during the transportation and the high ambient temperature in combination with the poor packing materials could be the main reason for losses.