EVALUATION OF SOME PROCESSING METHODS ON MOISTURE CONTENT OF Clarias gariepinus (BURCHELL, 1822)

Abstract

The gap between the demand and supply of fish is widening due to increase population, poor postharvest handling, inadequate processing and storage facilities. However, good post-harvest handling of fish such as smoking and brining could enhance better preservation of fish. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the effect of some processing methods on moisture content of C. gariepinus. The fish were washed aseptically and divided into four treatment groups; Smoked Whole Fish (SWF), Brine Smoked Whole Fish (BSWF), Smoked Gutted Fish (SGF) and Brine Smoked Gutted Fish (BSGF) with 15 C. gariepinus per treatment and replicated twice. The fish was smoked using smoking kiln at 100°C for 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 hours and moisture contents of 3 body parts such as the head, middle and tail were determined. The results revealed that moisture loss was between 40 and 50% when fish was smoked for 2 hours in all the treatment groups and increased gradually from 50 to 75% between 4 to 10 hours due to increasing drying durations. Gutted fish loss more water than whole fish, this could be that gut helps to speed up the rate of water loss when compared to the whole smoked fish. There was significant difference (p < 0.05) in the moisture content of the treated groups at 2, 4, 8 and 10 hours while no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed at 6 hours among the treatments. Conclusively, this mean that, at higher temperature brining is more effective in removing water than at lower temperature.