As the quantum of snack consumption increases, the efforts to increase its nutritional quality also gains popularity in this modern era. Protein enrichment is a very important process that food researchers are interested in. As fish is a very good source of protein, incorporation of fish in snacks can improve its nutritional quality. It can also improve the mineral profile of the product. In the present study, 7% of blanched dried sardine and lizardfish powder were incorporated in extruded snacks and the proximate composition was analysed in addition to analysis of calcium, phosphorus and iodine content. The storage stability was organoleptically evaluated in addition to TBARS analysis.
Moisture content in control product was 1.13 ± 0.10% while that in lizardfish extruded snack was 1.61 ± 0.07 % and that in sardine extruded snack was 1.75 ± 0.17% . Protein content in control product was 5.70 ± 0.08 % while that in lizardfish extruded snack was 8.09 ± 0.04 % and that in sardine extruded snack was 8.98 ± 0.12 . Ash content in control product was 0.199 ± 0.001 % while that in lizardfish extruded snack was 0.697 ± 0.003% and that in sardine extruded snack was 0.897 ± 0.003%. Fat content in control product was 2.82 ± 0.02% while that in lizardfish extruded snack was 3.90 ± 0.05 % and that in sardine extruded snack was 4.81 ± 0.12%. Carbohydrates content in control product was 90.15 ± 0.03 % while that in lizardfish extruded snack was 85.70 ± 0.10 % and that in sardine extruded snack was 83.56 ± 0.28 %. The Calcium content in control extruded snack, extruded snack with lizardfish powder and extruded snack with sardine powder were 38 ± 2 mg/100g, 46.67 ± 1.15 mg/100g and 84.33 ± 1.15 mg/100g, respectively. The Phosphorus content in control extruded snack, extruded snack with lizardfish powder and extruded snack with sardine powder were 4.67 ± 0.58 mg/100g, 36.33 ± 1.53 mg/100g and 62 ± 2 mg/100g, respectively. The Iodine content in extruded snack with lizardfish powder was 0.006 ± 0.001mg/100g and that in sardine extruded snack was 0.011 ± 0.001 mg/100g . However, Iodine content was not detected in control extruded snack. Thiobarbutiric acid values of control, lizardfish and sardine extruded products increased gradually from 0.15 µM/g, 0.26 µM/g and 0.28 µM/g, respectively on the 0th day to 0.32 µM/g, 0.46 µM/g and 0.49 µM/g on the 180th day, respectively. The organoleptic quality on hedonic evaluation decreased for all the products gradually during storage; however, all the products had acceptable scores till the 180th day. Nevertheless, the scores for extruded products with fish powder decreased below 5 on the 210th, which is the borderline of acceptability. Inclusion of blanched dried fish powder of sardine and lizardfish obtained good organoleptic acceptance and the nutritional value of the extruded snack increased on addition of fish powder without much decline in storage stability.