COOKED CATFISH FILLET TEXTURE: A COMPARISON OF SENSORY AND INSTRUMENTAL METHODS FOR FRESH-FROZEN AND IQF FILLETS

Because of the mild flavor of catfish, texture is one of its most important quality attributes.  Consistency in fillet texture quality is important to the consumer, with a difference being easily detected.  The determination of texture quality by a trained sensory panel can be costly, but with the use of instrumental methods, catfish processors could more routinely evaluate the texture attributes of products to proactively alleviate potential consumer complaints.  The purpose of this research was to compare the instrumental texture profile analysis (TPA) method with the sensory texture panel method for the analysis of fresh-frozen and individually quick frozen (IQF) catfish fillet texture.  The TPA evaluation was more successful for identifying differences between IQF and fresh-frozen catfish.  A significant different (P < 0.0016) was found for the attributes, springiness, resilience, chewiness-1, hardness-1, and residual parameters of springiness, chewiness-1b and hardness-1b, all showing larger values for fresh-frozen.  With the sensory quality panel, only firmness was found to be significantly larger for fresh-frozen, while moisture release and moisture retention were significantly smaller.  In addition, predictive equations were developed for sensory texture attributes from various TPA parameters.  For fresh-frozen catfish, the equations for the sensory attributes flaky, firmness, moisture release, moisture retention, had correlation coefficients of 0.50 or greater.  However, the correlation coefficients for IQF fish were less predictable with only flaky and firmness having correlation coefficients 0.50 or greater.