Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Ghana

Kakokako

Kako is Ghanaian partly fermented, salted and hard-dried fish, made mainly from large species such as sharks, skates and rays. FAO describes it together with koobi, the tilapia form; the fish is rubbed and layered with salt, left to ferment for a few days, then sun-dried. It is used as a food fish and as a condiment (FAO, on fermented fish in West Africa in general).

DocumentedFish and seafood4 days – 7 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe FAO description gives no amounts.
Shark, skate or ray, dressed and washed[fao329]
Dry salt[fao329]

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 7 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a fish

What changes: Dry salt is rubbed into the gills, belly cavity and skin

Step 1 of 3
Dress and wash the fish; rub salt into the gills, belly and skin
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

Kako is Ghanaian partly fermented, salted and hard-dried fish, made mainly from large species such as sharks, skates and rays. FAO describes it together with koobi, the tilapia form; the fish is rubbed and layered with salt, left to ferment for a few days, then sun-dried. It is used as a food fish and as a condiment (FAO, on fermented fish in West Africa in general). Made in 3 steps over 4 days – 7 days. The longest step, sun-dry, sprinkling on more salt, takes 2–4 days (Essuman K.M. 1992).

Key numbers
Main step2–4 daysReported[fao329]Sun-dry, sprinkling on more salt
AciditypH 6.1–6.4Measured[amuna2014]Sun-dry, sprinkling on more salt

What makes this one different

Kako is made from large fish such as sharks, skates and rays, while koobi is the tilapia form. In Ghana the name also covered imported stockfish (dried cod) from Norway.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Stockfish kakoDried cod imported from Iceland and Norway into Ghana and Nigeria in the 1960s; it has a fermented flavour like the local products.

Safety

The dried product breaks up easily and attracts insects and mould, so it has to be re-dried from time to time in long storage (FAO). In 18 samples bought from London retailers, imported from Ghana, the water activity was 0.55 to 0.70 and moisture about 42 %; the author named mycotoxins from mould as the main health risk, without measuring them, and rated the product low risk for bacteria (Amuna 2014). When it is made from shark, mercury is a separate concern. The FDA lists shark among the highest-mercury fish and advises people who are or may become pregnant, are breastfeeding, or are feeding children to avoid it.

History and sources

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

  1. [fao329] Essuman K.M. 1992, Fermented fish in Africa, a study on processing, marketing and consumption, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 329 (process table, trade section and composition table)gov
  2. [amuna2014] Amuna N.N. 2014, Food safety management practices in the traditional fish processing sector in Ghana and the microbiological safety of selected processed fish products from Ghana, MPhil thesis, University of Greenwich (Table 3.2 and section 3.3.2.3)paper
  3. [fda-fish] US Food and Drug Administration, Advice about eating fish (highest-mercury choices to avoid)gov