Dye reduction test to assess the bacteriological quality of fish stored in ice

The bacteriological load of fishes stored in ice was evaluated by the reduction time of resazurin and methylene blue dyes. An inverse relationship existed between aerobic mesophilic counts and dye reduction times. Results have indicated that dye reduction test can be used as a screening test in rapidly determining the bacterial load of fishes stored under iced condition. Very highly significant (p<0.01) negative correlations (r greater than or equal to 0.969) was obtained for both the dyes used in relation to microbial load of all the samples.