IMPACT OF OVEN DRYING, SUN DRYING AND FREEZING ON THE NUTRIENT COMPOSITION OF HETEROBRANCHUS LONGIFILIS

Abstract

Fish are highly perishable due to their biological composition, necessitating post-harvest preservation. Understanding how oven drying, sun drying, and freezing influence the shelf life and quality of Heterobranchus longifilis is essential for optimizing processing techniques and minimizing spoilage. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the effect of oven drying, sun drying, and freezing, on nutritional attributes of H. longifilis. H. longifilis specimens of average weight 500g were collected and weighed, gutted and cleaned. The fish specimens were processed using oven drying, sun
drying and freezing methods. After wish samples were sent for proximate analysis. The moisture content of H. longifilis samples exhibited significant variation among the three methods. Freezing resulted in higher moisture content while sun drying was intermediate followed by oven drying. Ash content of H. longifilis was significantly different being higher in oven drying followed by sun drying while freezing resulted in the lowest ash content. The lipid content of H. longifilis showed significant differences with freezing resulting in higher lipid content followed by sun drying and then oven
drying. The protein content of H. longifilis exhibited variation among the processing methods. Freezing resulted in higher protein content followed by sun drying and oven drying yielded the lowest. The protein in the freezing method was significantly higher when compared to other methods. This suggests that freezing better preserves the protein content of fish compared to other drying methods. The information obtained from this study indicate that both oven dried, sundried and frozen H. longifilis contain enough protein so can be eaten.