Abstract

The objective of this study was analyzing the microbiota of cobia meat samples grown in cages from Ilha Grande Bay, Rio de Janeiro state. Evaluating the efficiency of salting and smoking processing controlling the microbial frequency. The following results show an enumeration of Staphylococcus aureus: in fresh meat average of 8.1 CFU/g; smoked meat averaged 0.6 CFU/g; the salted meat was negative. Total coliforms, the results were: mean of 3.7 CFU/g for fresh meat; salted meat, an average of 2.2 CFU/g; the smoked fish was negative. Results forEscherichia coli and Salmonella spp. were negative in the three groups (fresh, smoked and salted).The Heterotrophic Aerobic Mesophilic Bacteria count presented for fresh meat an average of 307.5 CFU/g; for salted meat mean of 133.2 CFU/g; while the smoked meat an average of 0.4 UFC/g. All samples were within the standard of the Brazilian legislation for microbiological quality of the product.