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Fish and seafood from Cambodia

Trey praheumត្រីប្រហើម

Trey praheum is Cambodian freshwater fish salted and given a short fermentation, sold in wet markets and eaten as a main dish or seasoning. Market samples are lightly acid to near neutral (pH 5.40 to 7.6) with 1.76 to 17% salt. It had the highest share of E. coli of five Cambodian ferment groups tested, though the study found the differences between groups not significant.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Trey praheum itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Prahok, the closest documented fish and seafood ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Trey praheum.

Short entryFish and seafood

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives a recipe; amounts and timings are not documented.
Freshwater fish[ly2019]
Salt[ly2019]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the steps of Prahok: 6 months – 8 months

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

Step 1 of 5 · steps of Prahok
Clean and cut the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Pediococcus pentosaceus
Enterococcus faecium
Lactic acid bacteria
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

Trey praheum is Cambodian freshwater fish salted and given a short fermentation, sold in wet markets and eaten as a main dish or seasoning. Market samples are lightly acid to near neutral (pH 5.40 to 7.6) with 1.76 to 17% salt. It had the highest share of E. coli of five Cambodian ferment groups tested, though the study found the differences between groups not significant. Salt is 1.8–17 % (Chrun R 2023). Pediococcus pentosaceus and Enterococcus faecium, the lactic acid bacteria isolated from two market samples does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Salt1.8–17 %Measured[chrun2023][ly2020]Salt and ferment for a short time
AciditypH 5.4–7.6Measured[chrun2023][ly2020]Salt and ferment for a short time

What makes this one different

Trey praheum is the short-fermented, salted Cambodian fish. Prahok is a salted fish paste, and paork is fermented with rice and reaches a lower pH.

Related ferments

Safety

In market samples, E. coli was found in 60% and Salmonella enterica in 1 of 5 trey praherm, the highest E. coli share of the Cambodian groups tested, though the study found the differences between groups not significant. Most Enterobacteriaceae isolated survived 8% salt but did not grow at pH 4, and trey praheum stays near neutral (Chrun et al. 2023), so acidity does not protect it. The FDA's botulism controls for shelf-stable fish are 20 % salt in the water of the product, water activity of 0.85 or below, or pH 4.6 or below, and some of these samples met none of them. Mekong basin fish can also carry the liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini, which people catch from raw or undercooked fish, including short-fermented fish and Cambodia's prahok. No source we read shows that this light salting kills it, so cook it through before eating.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli (in 60% of 5 samples) and Salmonella enterica (1 of 5 samples).

History and sources

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

  1. [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):311–320, doi 10.6090/jarq.57.311paper
  2. [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
  3. [ly2019] Ly D., Mayrhofer S., Agung Yogeswara I.B. et al. 2019, Identification, classification and screening for γ-amino-butyric acid production in lactic acid bacteria from Cambodian fermented foods, Biomolecules 9(12):768, doi 10.3390/biom9120768paper
  4. [fda-ch13] US FDA, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13, Clostridium botulinum toxin formationgov
  5. [sithithaworn2011] Sithithaworn P. et al. 2011, The current status of opisthorchiasis and clonorchiasis in the Mekong Basin, Parasitology International 61(1), doi 10.1016/j.parint.2011.08.014paper