Nutritional value and organoleptic assessment of burgers made with some commercially important fish species

Abstract

Fish burgers are foods that contain a good portion of fish and are categorized as ready-to-eat convenient products or intermediate products. The aim of this study was to determine the nutritional value and organoleptic assessment of burgers made with some fish species. The major fish species used are Clarias gariepenius, Scomber scombrus, Micropogonias undulates and Merluccius merluccius, and their proximate analyses were conducted as per standard established methods. Sensory assessments were carried out by 16-man panelist to evaluate the consumers acceptance in terms of taste, aroma, texture, and appearance. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance and the results indicated that burgers made with Clarias gariepinus showed significantly (P<0.05) better acceptability. The proximate composition results of Clarias gariepinus burger showed 47.15% moisture content, 8.15% protein content, 11.79% fat, 0.52% fibre, 1.03% ash and 31.36% carbohydrates. Organoleptic assessment for the fish burger samples revealed that burger made with Scomber scombrus had the best results in terms of taste (8.13), aroma (7.50) and texture (7.75), except for the Micropogonias undulates burger, which had the best mean appearance (7.38) compared to the other samples. This study therefore shows that Clarias gariepinus and Scomber scombrus were the best accepted species for making fish burgers, followed by Micropogonias undulates and Merluccius merluccius. However, fish burgers had high nutritional value which makes each sample a good source of dietary protein for human consumption. The findings of this study can be of help for the commercial production of value-added, nutritious burgers made with fish.