Effect of salting and drying conditions on quality of salted Dried tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) 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