Effect of salting and drying conditions on quality of salted Dried tilapia (<i>Oreochromis niloticus</i>) fish

Abstract

The effects of salting time, drying time and drying method on the moisture content, salt content and hardness of salted dried tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fish were investigated using a randomized complete block factorial design. Temperatures ranging from 29.0 - 35.5 °C were used for open air sun-drying and temperatures from 34 - 54 °C were used for solar drying. All the three process variables had significant effects (p = 0.05) on the moisture content of the salted dried fish, but the salting time had significant effect (p < 0.1) only on the salt content. Regression analysis of the data yielded models with high coefficients of determination (³ 0.90) for the prediction of the moisture and salt content of solar and open sun-dried salted fish. The solar dried salted fish generally attained lower moisture levels than the open sun-dried samples. Analysis of sensory scores indicated that the hardness of salted dried fish decreased with salting time while increasing with drying time. A significant correlation was found between the hardness and accept-ability of salted dried fish. The conditions for producing the most acceptable salted dried fish were 24 hours salting time and 42 hours open sun-drying; the predicted moisture and salt content of these products were respectively 61.8 % (db) and 21.3 % (db). Hence, processing conditions involving short salting time and long drying time resulted in salted dried fish products with acceptable textural quality.


Journal of Applied Science and Technology (JAST) , Vol. 5, Nos. 1 & 2, 2000, pp. 156-161