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Fish and seafood from Sri Lanka

Jaadiජාඩි jaadi

Jaadi is a traditional Sri Lankan fish product. Gutted fish are cleaned in sea water, packed in layers with a mixture of salt and goraka (the fruit of Garcinia cambogia) and sealed. The goraka's acids keep the pH low while the flesh and organs break down partly in the liquid the fish gives off.

Fully documentedFish and seafood2 months – 3 months

Recipe

Jaadi, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Kbda3200, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceLayers of fish alternate with the salt and goraka mixture at 1 part of mixture to 3 parts of fish (Jayasinghe et al. 2000). The split between salt and goraka is not given.
Gutted, cleaned sea fish3 parts[jayasinghe2000]
Mixture of salt and goraka1 partThe paper gives the mixture to fish ratio, not the split between salt and goraka[jayasinghe2000]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months – 3 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: gutted fish, cleaned in sea water

Step 1 of 4
Gut and clean the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The fish are gutted and cleaned in sea water.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Jaadi is a traditional Sri Lankan fish product. Gutted fish are cleaned in sea water, packed in layers with a mixture of salt and goraka (the fruit of Garcinia cambogia) and sealed. The goraka's acids keep the pH low while the flesh and organs break down partly in the liquid the fish gives off. Made in 4 steps over 2 months – 3 months. The longest step, cure in its own liquid, takes 2–3 months (Jayasinghe P.S. 2000). Salt is 14.8–24.6 % (Jayasinghe P.S 2000). Lactobacillus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 monthsReported[jayasinghe-thesis]Cure in its own liquid
Salt14.8–24.6 %Measured[jayasinghe2000]Cure in its own liquid
AciditypH 3.6–5.9Measured[divisekera2021]Cure in its own liquid

What makes this one different

Jaadi is soured as well as salted, with goraka in the salt mixture, which sets it apart from dry-salted fish. Shidal of north-east India is unsalted fish fermented in sealed pots.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Colombo cure (related cure of southern India and Sri Lanka)Mackerel and salt 3:1 with dried tamarind in a concrete tank (Narzary et al. 2021); the Indian study of it names salt and goraka puli (Malabar tamarind, Garcinia cambogia) in its pickle mixture (Balachandran and Muraleedharan 1975).

Safety

A survey of jaadi from curing yards and stalls found 30 % of 40 samples unfit to eat, with maggots in the Negombo samples; the authors blame maggots and fungi for the highest bacterial counts. The authors blamed imperfect cleaning and too little salting, said good-quality salt controls salt-loving bacteria, and noted that the fat in the raw fish makes jaadi go rancid. Too little salt is the dangerous error, because the fish sit sealed for months. FDA's table has Clostridium botulinum type A growing up to 10 % water-phase salt, above pH 4.6 and water activity 0.935. Finished market samples held 14.8–24.56 % salt in one survey and 24.82–40.47 % in another, which also measured water activity 0.73–0.82 and pH 3.60–5.85 (Divisekera et al. 2021). Those samples do not vouch for a home batch, and the 1:3 mixture here does not say how much of it is salt. In Jayasinghe's storage trials 3:1 fish to salt gave the best quality, 5:1 broke down too far, and goraka did not control mould; those are quality findings, not a botulism test. Tuna and mackerel are among the fish FDA links to histamine (scombrotoxin) poisoning. FDA says cooking, canning and freezing do not reduce the toxin and that you cannot detect it by examining the fish, so keep such fish at 4 °C (40 °F) or lower before salting.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteriaceae (20–40 % of isolates early in storage; still 40 % at six months in jaadi kept in plastic containers); Fungal contamination and maggots (maggots in the Negombo samples), with high total bacterial counts in many of 40 samples from curing yards and stalls; In seven processing centres on the southern and western coast, strains of Bacillus cereus (three strains), B. thuringiensis (two), B. pumilus (two), B. haikouensis (two), B. licheniformis, B. paralicheniformis, Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus saprophyticus, plus the fungus Trichoderma longibrachiatum, which the authors call responsible for human disease and spoilage.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Jayasinghe's 2000 thesis, citing Subasinghe 1993, says the Colombo cure was developed to ship fish to Colombo in airtight barrels in strong brine formed from the fish's own fluids, and that it was a popular dish among rice-eating communities on the coast. Sri Lankan coastal communities then began making jaadi, and the thesis calls it a well-known trade and part of the fish cottage industry, with no accurate production statistics. The Industrial Technology Institute's 2010–2020 report calls it a simple traditional technique commonly practised in Sri Lanka and describes an improved formulation it made by upgrading the traditional method.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [fda-app4] US FDA 2011, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, 4th ed., Appendix 4, Bacterial pathogen growth and inactivation, Table A-1gov
  2. [fda-bbb] US Food and Drug Administration 2012, Bad Bug Book, 2nd edition, Scombrotoxingov
  3. [jayasinghe2000] Jayasinghe P.S., Bamunuarachchi A., Fonseka T.S.G. 2000, Survey on the quality of jaadi available in the Sri Lankan market, Journal of the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency of Sri Lanka 36:26-34paper
  4. [balachandran1975] Balachandran K.K. and Muraleedharan V. 1975, Studies on Colombo-curing of mackerel, Fishery Technology 12(2):145-150 (abstract)paper
  5. [narzary2021] Narzary Y. et al. 2021, Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine, indigenous technology processes, nutrient composition, and cultural significance, Journal of Ethnic Foods 8:33paper
  6. [jayasinghe-thesis] Jayasinghe P.S. 2000, Studies on the chemical-microbiological aspects of fish curing, MPhil thesis, University of Sri Jayewardenepura (sections 2.4.2.3, 3.1, 3.8 and 4.3.3; full text read)paper
  7. [divisekera2021] Divisekera D.M.W.D. et al. 2021, Pathogenic and spoilage causing microorganisms associated with traditional seafood product Jaadi manufactured in Southern and Western coastal belt of Sri Lanka, Asian Food Science Journal 20(10):25-35 (abstract via Crossref)paper
  8. [iti2025] Industrial Technology Institute (Sri Lanka) 2025, Research and Development 2010-2020, Food Technology section, 'Enhancing the quality of Jaadi'gov