Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fish and seafood from Cambodia

Prahokប្រហុក

Prahok is Cambodia's salted, fermented freshwater-fish paste. Cleaned fish are soaked, pressed under stone plates, mixed with a lot of salt and left in closed containers for about six months. Salt-loving bacteria ripen it into a paste that is cooked before eating.

Fully documentedFish and seafood6 months – 8 months

Recipe

Prahok, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Paxse, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe laboratory preparation of Thanh et al. 2025, which followed the traditional steps of filleting, soaking, pressing, salting and fermenting.
Freshwater fishCleaned and cut into small pieces without head, bones or scales[thanh2025]
Water3 parts water to 1 part fish (w/w)For a 20-hour soak before pressing[thanh2025]
Salt (NaCl)30 %Added to the pressed fish[thanh2025]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 months – 8 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: freshwater fish, cleaned and cut without head, bones or scales

Step 1 of 5
Clean and cut the fish
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

Prahok is Cambodia's salted, fermented freshwater-fish paste. Cleaned fish are soaked, pressed under stone plates, mixed with a lot of salt and left in closed containers for about six months. Salt-loving bacteria ripen it into a paste that is cooked before eating. Made in 5 steps over 6 months – 8 months. The longest step, salt and ferment in closed containers, takes 6–8 months (Thanh C 2025) and runs at 25–32 °C (Thanh C 2025). Salt is 30 % (Thanh C 2025). Lentibacillus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6–8 monthsReported[thanh2025]Salt and ferment in closed containers
Temperature25–32 °CReported[thanh2025]Salt and ferment in closed containers
Salt30 %Reported[thanh2025]Salt and ferment in closed containers
AciditypH 6.2–6.5Measured[thanh2025]Salt and ferment in closed containers

What makes this one different

In the study recipe the fish is soaked for 20 h and pressed under stone plates for 6 h before it is salted with 30 % NaCl. Rather than lactic bacteria, the salt-loving Lentibacillus dominates at the end.

Related ferments

Safety

Fat oxidises as it ages: the peroxide value passed the Codex reference of 10 meq O2/kg from month 4 and kept rising. Histamine stayed below quantification in the lab paste but was 51.7 and 113.5 mg/kg in two market samples. A wider survey found 35–408 ppm in 12 market samples, and one was above 400 ppm, a limit the authors take from EU rules for fishery products matured in brine (Ly et al. 2020). The US FDA says that once histamine has formed, heat cannot remove it. The study authors advise limiting fermentation to about 3 months and always cooking prahok rather than eating it fresh, since it may carry pathogens or parasites (Thanh et al. 2025). A Mekong review names raw or inadequately cooked pra hok among the ways people catch the liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini (Sithithaworn et al. 2012). E. coli was found in about a third of market samples (Chrun et al. 2023).

Hazards the sources name: Aeromonas (abundant right after salting); Clostridium (present throughout the ferment); Escherichia coli in 9 of 26 market prahok samples (35 %); Opisthorchis viverrini (liver fluke), named for raw or inadequately cooked pra hok in a Mekong review.

History and sources

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

Narzary et al. (2021) report that Cambodia's government introduced industry standards for prahok production in 2016, covering traits such as colour and smell. They say the standards followed the realisation that prahok was so popular among Cambodians at home and abroad that its health and safety needed monitoring.

  1. [thanh2025] Thanh C., Avallone S. et al. 2025, Nutritional and microbiological dynamics in the preparation of prahoc fish paste, PLoS ONE 20(4):e0321834paper
  2. [chrun2023] Chrun R., Mith H., Meng S., Long S., Born P., Inatsu Y. 2023, Assessing prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae isolated from Cambodian fermented fish and vegetables, JARQ 57(4):311-320paper
  3. [ly2020] Ly D., Mayrhofer S., Schmidt J.-M., Zitz U., Domig K.J. 2020, Biogenic amine contents and microbial characteristics of Cambodian fermented foods, Foods 9(2):198, doi 10.3390/foods9020198paper
  4. [fda-ch7] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 7, Scombrotoxin (histamine) formationgov
  5. [narzary2021] Narzary Y., Das S., Goyal A.K., Lam S.S., Sarma H., Sharma D. 2021, Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine, Journal of Ethnic Foods 8 (review), doi 10.1186/s42779-021-00109-0paper
  6. [sithithaworn2012] Sithithaworn P., Andrews R.H. et al. 2012, The current status of opisthorchiasis and clonorchiasis in the Mekong Basin, Parasitology International 61(1):10-16paper