Effect of leaching method on the gelling effect of the fishball from the fresh water fish (Clarias spp.)

Abstract

This research was conducted in order to find out the efficiency of leaching method on the gel strength of the clarias fish. Fishball is made to find out the efficiency of the leaching process towards the minced fish in surimi processing. The quality of fishball from claroas fish surimi was studied to see the effect of difference leaching method. There are three formulation of leaching method that is leaching method A (0.2 and 0.3% salt addition), B (without salt addition and 0.2% salt addition) and C (0.3 and 0.6%). Two kinds of fishes which were used marine white flesh and clarias fish. The protein concentration for the white flesh fishballs and clarias fishballs increased with the increased amount of the salt used for each leaching procedure which was from 13 to 17%. The moisture content was around 17% in white flesh fishballs and 26% in clarias fishballs. The ash content was around 0.8% in white flesh fishballs and 1.1 % in clarias fishballs. The fat content in the white flesh fishballs and clarias fishballs decrease as the amount of salt increasing in each step of leaching procedure. The amount of fat content in clarias fishballs decreased from 46% to 13.1 %. To determine the gel strength, fishballs from surimi was prepared. Gel strength using texture analyzer and folding test was carried out to determine the gel quality of the fishball. Gel strength of both the fishball species from formulation C of the leaching showed the highest value that is 20 kg/mm in clarias fishballs and 18.3 kg/mm. The pH value ranges from 7.15 to 7.23 in white flesh fish balls and 6.88 to 6. 94 in cl arias fishballs. The colour attribute was also evaluated and the results show the increases in the whiteness with the increased salt. The whiteness of the white flesh fishballs ranges from 36.6 to 28.4 while for clarias fishballs the value ranges from 25.7 to 29.9. Lastly sensory evaluation was done by 30 untrained panels. However, there was no significant different (p>0.05) in the juiciness, hardness, elasticity, chewiness and overall acceptance between the white flesh fishballs and clarias fishballs. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in white flesh fishballs and clarias fishballs, therefore clarias fishballs can be commercialized in the future.