Development of calcium enriched fish based sausages and evaluation of their potential for consumption

Abstract

Fish is well recognized as a healthy meat because of its content of proteins, polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals and vitamins. Development of convenient fish products is one way to increase consumption. Development of most of these products often entails the use of fish mince which is low in minerals, especially calcium. Therefore, fish bone powder is one of the most used by products in enriching fish products because it is rich in minerals. There is however limited information on utilization of fish bone soup to develop calcium rich products. Fish sausage is one of the products from fish mince which can be used as a vehicle for incorporation of calcium from fish bones because it can easily be consumed as a snack. The main objective of this study was to optimize fish mince and fish bone soup for production of calcium rich fish sausages. Design expert (version 11) was used to optimize fish mince and tilapia bone soup for sausage development. Commercially available fish sausage was used as a control. The nutritional value, functional properties and shelf life of the sausages were determined using standard methods. Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) with respect to fish sausages were also determined to provide information for the product promotion. There were significant differences in the nutritional composition of the tilapia sausages (TS) and Nile perch sausages NPS (p<0.05). TS contained more moisture (72.3%) compared to Nile perch sausages (71.2%). Nile perch had a higher value for calcium (177.442 mg/100g) compared to tilapia sausages (164.13 mg/100g). The highest value for protein, ash and carbohydrate was recorded in the control (19.21%, 1.19% and 6.56% respectively). There were no significant differences in the sensory attributes of the sausages (p>0.05). NPS had a higher value for water holding capacity (17.6%) as compared to TS (12.3%).The cooking yield for optimized NPS and TS were 92.56 % and 86.98% respectively which were insignificantly higher than that of the control (86.47%). Results for KAP indicated that 68% of the respondents considered fish sausage a good source of proteins, while 17% considered it a good source of fats. Based on the enhanced calcium levels and sensory acceptability of developed fish sausages, it can be concluded that there is potential for commercial production of calcium enhanced fish sausages. Keywords: Fish sausage, calcium enrichment