CHANGES IN PROTEIN-NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF INDONESIAN DRIED-SALTED FISH AFTER STORAGE

Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) was used to produce Indonesian dried-salted fish (DSF), by soaking the flesh in 150 g litre(-1) or 250 g litre(-1) brine solution for 24 h and then drying in an artificial drier at 45 degrees C for 40 h. The final products were stored for 6 months at 28 degrees C. Male Wistar rats were used to evaluate the nutritional quality of the DSF protein. Feed conversion efficiency, protein efficiency ratio and net protein ratio rats fed DSF were significantly lower than the control (casein) group. True protein digestibility (TD), biological value (BV) and net protein utilisation (NPU) of rats fed DSF were also significantly lower than the control group. The values of TD, BV and NPU were all >90% suggesting that the DSF still had good protein nutritional quality even after 6 months storage.