Development of fish crackers and its quality characteristics

Abstract

Fish is a perishable product mostly produced by nature and obtained in an excessive amount and due to that, the steps in processing and preserving fish play an important role in fishery industry. Fish products are generally favoured by the people as the typical characteristics and changes of their nature such as in terms of odour, flavour, appearance and texture and also has chemical contents required by human body. An investigation was carried out to develop fish cracker of high nutritive value with best organoleptic quality. The mostly consumed fish species Seela, Viral and Tilapia were used for the development of fish crackers. The cooked fish meat was mixed with other ingredients and made dough. After the steaming (60-90 min.) and sudden chilling (5-10 °C) of dough, they were sundried and fried. The nutritional parameters of fish crackers in terms of crude protein, crude fat, moisture content, ash content and pH were evaluated. The organoleptic evaluation was conducted by nine point hedonic scale test and parameters were colour, texture, taste, flavour and overall eating quality. The experiment was performed in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The findings revealed that there were significant differences in nutritional and organoleptic qualities among the fish crackers. The fish cracker of Tilapia indicated significantly highest value of crude protein content (12.28 %) followed by fish cracker of Seela (10.61 %). The crude fat content was also highest in fish cracker of Tilapia (22.55%). The fish cracker of Seela exhibited highest pH value (6.7) whereas that of Tilapia showed the lowest pH value (6.6). According to the organoleptic evaluation, the fish cracker of Tilapia performed better and showed the best overall eating quality among the treatments. In the present study, the fish cracker of Tilapia was found to be superior for the development of fish crackers as the best nutritional and overall eating quality. This research clearly indicated that the development o f fish crackers is the most efficient way of processing to maintain qualitative characteristics.