Fish crackers are a popular snack item in many Southeast Asian countries. Good quality crackers must have sufficient expansion on puffing for crispness, low moisture content, and low oil absorption. Many previous studies have attempted to improve the quality and acceptability of fish crackers. We have prepared tilapia and tuna fish crackers as ready-to-eat (RTE) products by optimizing processing parameters using a required amount of fish flesh (Tilapia/Tuna) mixed properly with different ingredients, including tapioca starch, sugar, salt, ice, sodium bicarbonate etc. The colour, texture and nutritional quality were also determined by the standard method. Then the shelf-life of ready-to-eat (RTE) crackers was evaluated by biochemical and microbiological analysis (pH, TVBN, FFA, TBARS and APC) under air pack (control), modified atmosphere packaging with 100% N2 (MAP-1) and 50% CO2 & 50% N2 (MAP-2) in a multilayered pouch in a month interval during storage at room temperature. Consumer’s acceptability of packaged RTE fish crackers was investigated by survey method utilizing a structured questionnaire in three sales outlets such as Amana big Bazar, Rajshahi; RU souvenir shop, Rajshahi University campus; BARC canteen, Farmgate, Dhaka in June 2022. A 9-point hedonic scale method (9 like extremely and 1 dislike extremely) was used to evaluate the sensory quality during the survey.
In both crackers, around 11% protein was estimated. The lightness (L*) was high (60.67) in tilapia and low (32.85) in tuna crackers, while redness (a*) was high (13.44) in tuna and low (6.50) in tilapia. The hardness (N) was high (5.43N) in tuna crackers and low (4.90 N) in tilapia crackers. Considering the biochemical and microbial parameters, the shelf life was determined at approximately 4th month in both crackers for the air pack sample and 5th month in tilapia crackers and 6th month in tuna crackers for both MAP-1 & MAP-2 samples. In the survey, 24 consumers responded, and all opined on introducing this kind of MAP packaged fish crackers in the market. The sensory score of tilapia and tuna crackers was 7.6 (like very much) and 7 (like moderately), respectively, in terms of colour, flavour, taste, texture and overall appearance.
Considering the above findings, there is a scope to produce MAP packaged fish crackers which can be easily sold for a longer period at room temperature, ultimately making the fish crackers a convenient and nutritious snack item in Bangladesh.