Coconut Flour as a Novel Functional Ingredient in Tilapia Fish Sausage: Effect on Textural and Sensory Properties

Abstract

Coconut meat residue, a byproduct of coconut milk industry, was converted into coconut flour (CFs) and used in developing functional tilapia fish sausage. The CFs were prepared by four different drying methods namely sun drying, freeze drying, oven drying, and vacuum drying accordingly designated as SDF, FDF, ODF, and VDF, respectively. The CFs were characterized for proximate composition, functional, and sensory properties. Further, based on the sensory acceptability, ODF was incorporated in tilapia fish sausage and compared with commercial-CF and corn flour. Commercial-CF, ODF and corn flour tilapia sausages had the protein content of 21.33%, 11.94%, and 12.66%, respectively. The corn flour-added sausage had significantly higher (p < 0.05) value for textural properties except adhesiveness compared to coconut flour-added sausages while the commercial CF-added sausages had significantly higher (p < 0.05) sensory acceptability (8.35 liked very much—liked extremely). From the study, it is concluded that the inclusion of commercial coconut flour in fish sausage enriched the protein content (more than 50%; d.b.) while adding the functional ingredient such as dietary fiber without affecting the textural properties.