Liquid fish sauces (n = 61) collected from seven Southeast and East Asian c
ountries were analyzed for free amino acids, organic acids, nucleosides and
nucleic acid bases as well as creatine, creatinine, pH, salt content, mois
ture, and total nitrogen. The fish sauces were only made from fish species
such as anchovy and sardine. A high nitrogen recovery of 97.9% was obtained
for all nitrogen-containing compounds in a Vietnamese fish sauce. The fish
sauces of Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand showed high concentrations of these
compounds except for organic acids and a very close amino acid pattern whe
reas those of Myanmar and Laos exhibited the lowest contents and a differen
t amino acid pattern from those of the above three countries. Korean and Ch
inese fish sauces showed intermediate contents and the same amino acid patt
ern. Of all organic acids determined, acetate dominated in Myanmar and Chin
ese fish sauces, suggesting that acetic acid fermentation is predominant. I
n the fish sauces from other countries, pyroglutamate and lactate were high
. These data will give a standard for the chemical composition of fish sauc
es from various Southeast and East Asian countries and during the productio
n of fish sauce. These results also indicate that creatinine which originat
es from creatine during fish sauce fermentation and receives only small bac
teria[ decomposition is a possible marker for the quality control in fish s
auce factories, because its determination is much easier and time saving th
an for the other compounds. (C) 2001 Academic Press.