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Fermentation Atlas

Sauces and condiments from Vietnam

Nước mắm Phú Quốcnước mắm Phú Quốc

Anchovies are salted on the boat deck as soon as they are caught, then packed into large wooden barrels on Phú Quốc island, drained, pressed and left to ferment naturally for 12 to 15 months. The liquid is drawn off and poured back until it runs clear, then blended with weaker brine extracts and bottled on the island by grade of nitrogen. Made in 7 steps over 12 months – 15 months. The longest step, ferment in the barrel, takes 12–15 months (Single document 'Phú Quốc' 2009) and runs at 27.5 °C (Single document 'Phú Quốc' 2009). Salt is 25 % (Đại biểu Nhân dân). Tetragenococcus halophilus and Staphylococcus and Bacillus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12–15 monthsSet[pdo]Ferment in the barrel
Temperature27.5 °CReported[pdo]Ferment in the barrel
Salt25 %Reported[daibieu]Sort, wash and salt the catch on deck
Fully documentedSauces and condiments12 months – 15 monthsPDO (EU, 2012)More sauces and condimentsMore from ThailandMore from Vietnam

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe PDO does not fix the fish-to-salt ratio. About 3 parts fish to 1 part salt is the figure reported by island producers; a 2.5:1 ratio is also reported.
About 3 parts by weightFresh anchovies (cá cơm) · Other species may not exceed 15 % of the catch[pdo][daibieu]
About 1 part by weightSea salt · Settled for 3–6 months before use to lose bitterness[daibieu]
0.5–1.5 %Sugar (optional) · Allowed by the PDO for some markets[pdo]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 months – 15 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 25 %

What changes: Salt mixed into the fresh anchovies on deck starts to draw water out

Step 1 of 7
Sort, wash and salt the catch on deck
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
25 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
T. halophilus
Bacillus their

Fishers pick out other species by hand and wash the anchovies in sea water. Salt is mixed in with wooden tools so the fish are not damaged. Output: salted anchovies.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

salt stops spoilage bacteria while the fish are still fresh

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

What makes this one different

Phú Quốc sauce ferments in wooden barrels rather than concrete tanks and is drawn off and poured back until it runs clear. The PDO sets five grades from 20 to 40 g N per litre, well above the Codex floor of 10 g/L, and requires bottling on the island.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Nước mắm nhỉThe first extract drawn from the barrel, the richest grade.
  • Long extracts 1, 2 and 3Weaker sauces washed out of spent fish with saturated brine, used for blending.
  • Nước mắm Phan ThiếtMainland Bình Thuận sauce made by the same anchovy-and-salt method, outside the Phú Quốc PDO.

Safety

The PDO sets salt at 250–295 g/L, histamine at 200 mg/L or less and lead at 0.5 mg/L or less. Codex sets a stricter histamine cap of 40 mg per 100 g. Histamine comes from fish that are not salted fresh, which is why the catch is salted on deck. Bottles are kept in a roofed store at ambient temperature.

Hazards the sources name: Histamine-forming bacteria on fish not salted at once (the PDO caps histamine at 200 mg/L).

History and sources

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

Vietnam applied to register Phú Quốc in the EU in 2009, and the name was entered as a protected designation of origin by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 928/2012 of 8 October 2012.

  1. [pdo] Single document 'Phú Quốc', EC No VN-PDO-0005-0788-26.08.2009, Official Journal of the European Union C 1, 4.1.2012, p. 12spec
  2. [reg928] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 928/2012 of 8 October 2012 entering 'Phú Quốc' (PDO) in the registerspec
  3. [codex302] Codex Alimentarius Commission, Standard for Fish Sauce, CXS 302-2011 (amended 2012, 2013), FAO/WHOspec
  4. [vu2026] Vu T.T.T., Valentino V., Tran T.H. et al. 2026, Dynamic changes in microbiome during traditional Vietnamese fish sauce fermentation revealed by metagenomics analysis, Applied Food Research 6:102125paper
  5. [nguyen2021] Do Quynh Nguyen A. et al. 2021, Fish sauce fermentation using Marinococcus halotolerans SPQ isolate as a starter culture, Food Science & Nutrition (2021)paper
  6. [daibieu] Đại biểu Nhân dân, Bên trong những thùng gỗ khổng lồ ở Phú Quốc (inside Phú Quốc's giant wooden barrels), news featureweb