Surveillance of microbial pathogens and development of a predictive model for in dried fish fillet.

This study aimed to achieve two primary objectives: (1) to evaluate microbial contamination in 580 dried fish fillets for the presence of key foodborne pathogens, including , spp., , , and spp.; and (2) to develop predictive survival models for in dried squid, (dried pollack) and seasoned dried filefish. Microbial surveillance detected no, spp., , or spp.; however, and was identified in one and four samples, respectively. Predictive modeling involved inoculating dried squid, and seasoned dried filefish with and storing them at 4 °C, 10 °C, 20 °C and 37 °C. The survival rates, analyzed using the Weibull distribution, exhibited clear temperature-dependent behavior. Secondary models, validated with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values of 0.39, 0.36 and 0.35 demonstrate their utility as effective tools for microbial risk assessment and enhancing food safety management practices.