Development and assessment of a locally designed fish smoking kiln using insulating materials

Abstract

The origin of fish smoking dates back to antiquity. In ancient times, fish was hung over a fire which helped to reduce its moisture content. Further advancement was made traditionally by the erection of mud, bricks or corrugated iron angle bar. The gas smoking kiln has been developed using locally available materials in the study area towards improving the existing fish smoking kiln techniques. The objective of this work is to improve the quality of smoked fish in Kainji Lake Basin Area in Nigeria at minimum production cost. The preliminary test performance of the kiln has been conducted using Clarias gariepinus, known generally as catfish. The result obtained shows that the kiln is less labour intensive and can handle different sizes of fish faster with better appearance of the end product than the conventional smoking methods.