## 3 Results and Discussion
High salt concentrations and low storage temperatures inhibited HB bacteria growth, which was demonstrated in this study and in previous works [24]. Similarly, the results of the bacteria count closely supported the values of \(\mathrm{a_{w}}\) levels, as the lower the \(\mathrm{a_{w}}\) became, the lower the microbial counts observed. [PERSON] et al. [42] obtained total HB counts within the 1.39-2.83 and 1.17-3.17 log cfu/ g ranges in the commercial brined and dry-sulted products, respectively. For HFB counts, they obtained values varying from undetectable to 2.62 log cfu/ g and from undetectable to 2.90 in the same respect [42]. Decreasing total viable bacteria counts and slight and moderate halophilic counts were also obtained by [PERSON] et al. [25] during the ripening period. However, they also obtained increasing levels of extreme HB. Although high levels of HB are usually related to spoilage, some halophiles, particularly moderate halophiles and extremely halophilic archaea, are also related to the improving ripening quality of anchovies [41; 54; 55]. [PERSON] et al. [56] reported that the extremely halofilic bacteria require between 15 and 30% concentrations of NaCl for growth. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [41] demonstrated that the ripening process of salted anchovies was dominated by moderate HB. Moreover, they reported that many of the isolated strains showed proteolytic, lipolytic, and TMAO reductase activities. They claimed that these activities contributed to the development of the typical flavor of this product and to the increase in total volatile bases observed during ripening. Therefore, the HB load obtained in this study during storage may help with the flavor development of the brined anchovies. Histamine is formed by the decarboxylating activity of HFB, mainly members of the genera _Klebsiella_, _Morganella_, _Vibrio_, _Photobacterium_, and others [43; 57]. However, [PERSON] et al. [25] demonstrated that halotolerant and halophilic histamine-producing bacteria isolated during the ripening of salted anchovies generally belong to the _Staphylococcus_ genus, possessing powerful histamine-forming activity in the presence of 3% and 10% NaCl. During the ripening of salted anchovies, important proteolysis is observed, with the liberation of peptides and free amino acids. When free histidine is found in sufficient quantities, it can be degraded by microorganisms or their enzymes. Consequently, histamine may be formed at this time and eventually reach toxic levels [25]. In the present study, the products corresponding to 10 and 15% brine concentrations of the control group, and 10, 15, and 20% of the experimental group, contained a salt content of \(\leq\)10%, which is not safe for histamine development during the ripening process. However, the brine concentrations over these values were within the safety levels for the control group starting from the 2 nd week and 1 st month for 30% and 20 and 25% brine concentrations, respectively. The salt contents of the experimental group were found to be lower than the suggested value starting from the 1 st week of brining for other brine concentrations. The salt contents of dry-salted products were above 10% throughout the storage, starting from the 1 st week. The histamine contents obtained in this study were usually found to be under the detection limits, with several exceptions for both groups (Table 4). Therefore, these findings imply that the levels of salt content in the products were within the safety levels for both groups required to prevent HFB activity, which retards histamine formation during storage. Initial HFB in fish is important since previously formed histamine decarboxylases can continue to decarboxylate histidine to histamine even when histamine decarboxylase-positive bacteria are no longer viable [43]. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [24] demonstrated that histamine can develop during the ripening of brined anchovies at ambient temperature but that, conversely, histamine does not develop during refrigerated storage.