抄録
Microbial flora of an indigenous food to Japan, fermented puffer fish ovaries, “fugunoko nukazuke”, were examined. Samples used for the examinations were salted ovaries of puffer fish Fugu stictonotum for 2 months and 1 year, exudate from ovaries after 2 months' and 1 year's salting, ovaries fermented in rice-bran for 4 months and 2 years, and rice-bran fermented for 4 months and 2 years.
The viable bacterial counts obtained from these samples were different dependingon the culture conditions and manufacturing process. However, high counts of 107 cfu/g and 107 cfu/ml were obtained in some samples of fermented rice-bran and exudate.
Most isolates which were tolerant to high levels of salt concentration can be tentativelydivided into four groups: lactic acid cocci, halophilic anaerobes, Pseudomonas-like halophiles, and halophilic archaea. These four groups of bacteria were found insalted ovaries and exudate, while in the samples fermented with rice-bran the dominant microflora were lactic acid cocci. Bacillus, Corynebacterium, and Staphylococcus were also isolated, but the counts of these were much lower.
