Tamanho de tilápias para enlatamento visando agregação de valor: produção de patê

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the composition of tilapia cuts obtained from different methods (in natura and canned). A total of 100 tilapia were used, separated into three weight groups: small (48.51 to 112.56 g); medium (118.30 to 256.51 g); and large (259.90 to 373.33 g). Twenty fish were classified to the large category, 20 to the medium category, and 60 to the small category. After cleaning, the specimens were packed in plastic bags marked with their respective size categories and then frozen for canning. Another amount was frozen in natura. Statistical analysis was done in two stages, the first to determine the existence of effect of size classification on fish characteristics in natura, and the second to determine the effect of size and packaging on chemical composition. The set of characteristics of weights, morphometric measurements and yields were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and comparisons between levels of the factors analyzed using the unpaired Wilcoxon test. To evaluate the effect of size on sensory characteristics the Friedman test was used. Considering the significance level of 5%. In case of a statistically significant effect, the Conover test was used. The size classes differed statistically (P<0.05) for the weight, length and yield variables. The yield results showed an increasing trend according to the sizes with average values of 45.07% ± 2.60% for the small size, 46.49% ± 1.43% for the medium size and 49.43% ± 2.31% for the large size. The values found for the chemical composition of the cleaned log showed that there was an effect of the size (P<0.05) of the fish in relation to the ash content, where the large size was superior to the others because it obtained more mass. There is no sensory difference between the characteristics of the canned sizes, which indicates that the size factor is not perceptible to the consumer for the canned product.