Standardisation of Various Food Ingredients for Salt Cured Tigertooth Croaker, Otolithes ruber (Bloch and Schneider, 1801)

Abstract

This study examined the sensory acceptability of dried, salt-cured tigertooth croaker (Otolithes ruber) prepared using selected concentrations of sodium chloride, ginger, garlic, turmeric and onion. Fresh fish obtained at Mirkarwada Jetty, Ratnagiri, were characterised for proximate composition and selected biochemical and microbiological indicators. Salt-curing treatments were first compared, followed by preliminary and narrower-range sensory trials for each plant-derived ingredient in salt-cured fish. Product appearance, colour, odour, texture and overall acceptability were rated by a panel of ten assessors using a nine-point hedonic scale. The fresh fish contained 78.11 ± 0.03% moisture, 17.87 ± 0.02% protein, 1.91 ± 0.01% fat and 1.38 ± 0.01% ash. Fresh-fish total volatile base nitrogen was 4.15 ± 0.01 mg/100 g, trimethylamine nitrogen was 2.10 ± 0.01 mg/100 g, and total plate count was 1.56 ± 0.03 log CFU/g. The highest observed overall acceptability scores in the respective final comparisons occurred at nominal treatment concentrations of 33% salt, 25% ginger extract, 16.5% garlic extract, 6% turmeric paste and 31% onion extract. These percentages describe treatment conditions investigated separately rather than the composition of a validated combined formulation. The findings provide preliminary sensory evidence for ingredient selection in dried croaker processing. The microbiological stability, water activity, salt content and storage life of the final treated products were not directly established by the reported measurements.