IMPROVING NUTRITIONAL SECURITY THROUGH THE METHOD OF DRYING Heteroclarias AND Oreochromis niloticus FOR PRESERVATION

This study was conducted to compare the effect of Sun drying and Oven drying on the nutritional composition of two fish species (Heteroclarias and Oreochromis niloticus). Ten freshly harvested catfish (Heteroclarias) and Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) were shared into two parts; a part was sun - dried for 12 days (7 hours daily) between the hours of 9 a.m - 4 p.m at an average temperature range of 23 - 35.9⁰C, temperature range in Iworoko Ekiti between February - March (According to Norwegian Met Institute) and the other part was dried using laboratory electric oven at a temperature range of 80⁰C for 5 days (4 hours daily). Each part was in three (3) replicates. The proximate compositions of the dried samples (Mean moisture, protein, lipid, ash, fibre, carbohydrate) were determined. The changes in moisture, protein and carbohydrate contents including energy value were found to be significant (P < 0.05) for the two processing (drying) methods. Ash and lipid contents showed no significant differences (P >0.05) for the two drying methods used in this study. The changes in the fibre contents was found to be significant (P < 0.05) in the Heteroclarias species for both processing methods while it was not significant (P >0.05) in the Oreochromis niloticus species for both processing methods. This result indicates that drying methods have effects on the proximate compositions of fish species (Heteroclarias and Oreochromis niloticus).  The organoleptic properties of Oven dried and Sun dried fish species are shown on Tables 1 and 2. The overall assessment showed that; for taste; the highest mean value recorded was 6.0 ± 0.0 and 5.3 ± 0.6 in Oven dried Heteroclarias and Oven dried Oreochromis niloticus respectively. The least mean value 3.0 ± 0.5 was recorded in the sun dried Oreochromis niloticus followed by 3.4 ± 0.6 in sun dried Heteroclarias. The result further indicated that there is significant difference between organoleptic qualities of oven dried and sun dried samples of the same fish species.