Identification of haloarchaea during fermentation of Sardinella longiceps for being the starter culture to accelerate fish sauce production

Summary The present study was aimed to improve the value of native species Sardinella longiceps by fermentation method. Throughout the fermentation process, Halophilic archaeal diversity (103–107 log CFU/g) with their biochemical changes was observed. Overall, 67 archaeal isolates were isolated in various stages of fermentation and its belonging to sixteen genera dominated by Halobacterium (16), Natronobacterium (9), Halococcus (8), Halomicrobium (5), Halorubrum (4) and Haloalkalicoccus (4) which were identified by 16S rRNAgene analysis. During the fish sauce fermentation, Halobacterium sp. S12FS1 was predominant and it has significantly reduced (75%) the maturation time from 12 months into 4 months with an effective biochemical changes and potential protease and lipase enzyme activities. The sensory evaluation of archaeal fermented samples has received higher level (9.1 ± 0.48) of acceptability than control (7.4 ± 0.43). Hence, the implementation of present work will be successful at commercial level and will support directly to fishery products development globally. Fish sauce fermentation.