Study on texture improving process of ready-to-eat smoked tilapia fillets

In order to obtain acceptable texture of smoked read-to-eat (RTE) tilapia fillets, the sensory evaluation and texture analyzer were combined to study the processing of drying and sterilization. The results showed that smoked RTE tilapia fillet was needed drying to change its texture because of high moisture content and low fat in fresh fish meat. The smoked and cured fillets were dried in 60℃ for 7h to make the moisture content in fillets reduced to 56.2% . In this case, the taste sensory of product was highly accepted by consumers, with 6.59N hardness and score over 8, respectively. When tilapia fillets with seasoning oil were sealed in vacuum and sterilized under 121℃ for 20min, the texture of products were highly accepted with sensory score over 8 and hardness 6.91N.