Development of Fish Cracker from Indian Major Carp, Labeo catla

Abstract

Background: The popularity of snack foods among children and younger has attracted the attention of food processor for finding out new avenues of earning profit. Therefore, the aim of this research was to develop crackers from freshwater fish, catla and if found successful, become a part of food industry on large scale. Methods: Fresh fish, Labeo catla were procured from local market, available at Nagpur city, Maharashtra. The mince was prepared using meat mincer. The corn flour and seasonings were purchased from local market. The 60:40 ratio of fish mince to corn flour was used for making crackers. The minced meat, corn flour, salt and seasonings were mixed to form smooth dough. Dough was placed in boiling water at 100°C, boiled for 15 minutes and cool down for 15-20 minutes. Dough was cut into 2-3 mm thick slices, sun dried for 2 days and fried in edible oil at 180-200°C for 30 seconds. Result: The results indicate that crispy, golden brown colored crackers were developed from mince of catla fish with excellent nutritional quality. The developed crackers were rated as ‘liked more’ among the panelists. This may replace wafers from plant origin in near future to meet the ever-increasing demand of nutritious food to the people.