Effects of Various Drying Methods on Physicochemical Characteristics and Textural Features of Yellow Croaker ().

The physicochemical characteristics and textural properties of yellow croaker treated by hot air drying (HAD), low temperature vacuum drying (LVD), and freeze drying (FD) methods were studied. The dried fish by LVD had the lowest moisture content and highest protein. The volatile basic nitrogen values of dried fish by HAD, LVD, and FD were 66.27, 34.38, and 33.03 mg/100 g sample, respectively. The predominant amino acids of dried fish treated by LVD and FD were lysine, taurine, alanine, and glutamic acid, and the predominant ones by HAD were the remaining amino acids analyzed in this study, except lysine, taurine, alanine, and glutamic acid. By using the color parameters, the L* and b* values by LVD showed light brown and yellow colors of the fish. The textural properties of dried fish by LVD were softer and more chewable than those of HAD and FD. In the stereo-micrographs, the flesh of dried fish by LVD compared to others showed minimization of texture damage, resilient tissues, much fish oil, and were light brown in color. Taken together, these results suggest that LVD rather than HAD and FD provide good qualities of dried fish in terms of physicochemical characteristics and textural properties.