Proximate and organoleptic characteristics of sun and solar dried fish

Abstract

The sun and solar drier were evaluated for their drying effectiveness with three species of freshwater fish; Gymnarchus niloticus, Heterotis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus. The highest mean temperature that could be attained in the solar dryer was 700C at time 14.00 hour while the ambent temperature and insulation were 33.5 i 0C and 857.6 w/m2 respectively. Proximate and organoleptic characteristics of the sun and solar dried products were carried out. It was found out that quality of the fish products dried in the solar drier were superior to those sun-dried. Organoleptic characteristics of the solar dried were better, especially the odour and moisture reduction was more in solar than in sun dried products. It took only three days for the fish to be completely dried in the solar drier compared with sun dried fish products which took seven days to dry.