A Survey Study to Detect Problems on Salted Hides and Skins

Some problems originated from raw hides/skins can not be recovered by other steps in leather processing and affect adversely quality of leather. To detect these problems, a questionnaire containing 14 questions was prepared and applied to 15 leather technicians working in different tanneries of Tuzla and Corlu Leather Industrial Zones, Turkey. According to questionnaire results, numbers of tanneries used cattle hides were higher than those of goat and sheep skins. Hides/skins cured in different countries were used in leather industry. Storage period of salted hides/skins was not long and most of samples were processed between one and six months. Storage temperature of tanneries were ranged from 0oC to 30°C. Dry salting was used mostly by tanneries. Fairly high percentage of tanneries used only salt in preservation of hides/skins. Problems such as hair loosening, bacterial and fungal growth, bad odor, red heat, holes, stains on hides/skins and loss of hide/skin elasticity were reported by technicians. Most of problems encountered in leather industry were related to bacterial and fungal growth and their activities. Our microbiological studies results supported that presence of red heat, bad odor, hair slip, stains, holes on the hides/skins and loss of leather elasticity was closely related to microbial growth and activities.