Determination of Major Problems of Raw Hide and Soaking Process in Leather Industry

ABSTRACT Hide quality is adversely affected during salt-curing and soaking processes especially due to bacterial activities of microorganisms. These organisms may cause irreversible grain damage, pinpricks, disruption of collagen fibers, uneven dyeing that cannot be recovered by leather production process. To determine major problems on salted and soaked skins/hides, a questionnaire study was applied to leather technicians in Leather Organized Tannery Region, Istanbul, Turkey in both 2009 and 2018. While most tanneries were processing hides/skins imported from foreign countries in 2009, local cattle hides are processed in 2018. Conventional salt curing method has been applied in warehouses. The most striking point is that the salt was applied randomly during preservation. Although tanneries do not store rawhide more than one month, there is no information about how long they store in warehouses. The tanneries reported red spots, unpleasant odor, hair slip, loss of elasticity, holes in grain surface, bacterial and fungal growth on skin/hides. Leather-making processes are performed at ambient temperature of tanneries. No difference was observed in application of soaking process in both 2009 and 2018 surveys. This questionnaire study showed that most of problems were related with microbial damage and bloodstain, burns due to manure and flaying mistakes at slaughterhouses.