Factors that affect the quality of the Trichogaster pectoralis dried fish By the solar dried oven

Abstract

Trichogaster pectoralis solar dried oven is the oven that has been developed from the research project “The development of Trichogaster pectoralis solar dried oven”. The objective of this research is to improve the drying process of Trichogaster pectoralis to be safe for consumers. Physics theories about natural energy (wind and solar) were used to apply with solar dried oven creation. There are important factors which are relative humidity and the average temperature inside the oven that affects the quality of the fish fillets. During the drying process, both factors can be controlled by opening the ventilator fan during the airing phase and turn the fan off during the airing which takes about 2-3 hours to dry per time. From the results of the experiment, it was found that total viable counts, yeast, fungi, Staphylococcus aureus, coliforms and also aw values were not pass the standard of community products because it exceeded the required criteria (the criteria defined are less than 0.85) because the result obtained from the experiment was 0.99. Moreover, it was found that the factors affecting the quality of Trichogaster pectoralis are the temperature and relative humidity in the oven. Therefore, Trichogaster pectoralis fish processing farmers should control the relative humidity and the temperature inside the oven throughout the drying process. The average relative humidity about 60 percent, while the average temperature is about 35 degrees Celsius.