Abstract
Fish smoking is a major activity in the fish industry. In most riverside areas in Nigeria, where fish business is very prominent smoking operations are mostly carried out manually and under unhygienic conditions. The concept of the smoking kiln development is to ease the drudgery associated with traditional methods (drum smoking) in the riverside communities. In this study, a motorized fish smoking kiln was designed, fabricated with locally available materials. The smoking process is based on natural convection of heated air with temperature ranging between 60°C and 110°C. The fish smoking kiln has an overall dimension of1600×1220×70 mm and uses charcoal as the main source of energy. The average capacity of the smoking chamber is 120 kg. The performance test was conducted to ascertain its performance. The result showed that moisture content was reduced from 80% to 30% with an average smoking time of 60 mins. The study concluded that fishes smoked by the kiln have a longer shelf life during storage when compared with traditional (drum) method, due to hot smoking temperature which reduces moisture faster. The overall average percentage weight loss obtained for three species tested are as follows: Etholmosa Fimbriata (sawa)-36%, Scombridae mackerel (37%) and Clarias gariepinus (cat fish) -45%.
Highlights
Fish processing through hot smoking or Kiln is an age long practice in most parts of the world
The fishes were evenly smoked, except those that are very close to the charcoal fire pot
The loss of water was found to be rapid in clarias gariepinus than other fish species resulting in huge weight loss
Summary
Fish processing through hot smoking or Kiln is an age long practice in most parts of the world. Nigeria fish smoking practices are yet to gain prominence on a large commercial scale due to lack of appropriate technology approach to assist the fish farming business. Available methods such as mud bricks stone and firewood are predominantly used and these affected the quantity and quality of fish processed. Mechanical smoking kiln was developed and produces high quality fishes with uniform heat distribution. This type uses forced-draft which improves smoking efficiency through appropriate distribution and uses of heat. The trolley is pushed into the drying chamber and air passing over is heated by electricity, gas or oil
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