Basma S Elkhamisy¹*, Gehan A Ghoniem^1,2, Faten Y Ibrahim¹, Shady M ElShehawy^1,3 and Samy E Elfar⁴

¹Food Industries Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt ²National Committee of Nutritional Sciences, Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Ministry of Higher Education, Egypt ³National Committee of Oceanography and Fisheries, Academy of Scientific Re- search and Technology, Ministry of Higher Education, Egypt ⁴Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura Univer- sity, Egypt

*Corresponding Author: Basma S Elkhamisy, Food Industries Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.

Received: October 06, 2026; Published: October 27, 2026

This study evaluated the quality of dried fillets of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) pretreated with or without 3% salt, hot-air dried at 50 or 60 °C, vacuum-packed and stored at room temperature for four months. Gross chemical composition, moisture, salt content, hardness, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN), thiobarbituric acid (TBA), peroxide value (PV), colour, microbial counts and sensory attributes were determined. The dried fillets were rich in protein (64.98-69.94%) and low in moisture (6.78-11.06%), with salted catfish dried at 60 °C showing the lowest moisture. During storage, moisture increased only slightly, while hardness, TVBN, TBA and PV increased progressively. At the end of storage, TVBN (3.30-4.71 mg N/100 g) and PV (1.92-2.25 meq O₂/kg) were well below their permissible limits, and TBA (1.47-1.69 mg MDA/kg) remained within the permissible range. Salting combined with drying at 60 °C reduced TVBN in carp and gave the lowest TBA values in both species. Microbial counts decreased continuously during storage, with total viable bacterial count falling by 23-44% and the lowest counts recorded in the salted treatments. Carp pretreated with 3% salt and dried at 60 °C received the highest sensory scores. These results show that 3% salting combined with hot-air drying at 60 °C and vacuum packaging is an effective way to produce shelf-stable dried carp and catfish fillets.

Keywords: Common Carp; African Catfish; Hot-Air Drying; Salting; Storage Stability; Lipid Oxidation; TVBN; Microbial Quality

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Citation

Citation: Basma S Elkhamisy.,et al. ““Quality Attributes of Dried Fillets of Common Carp and African Catfish During Room Temperature Storage". Acta Scientific Agriculture 10.8 (2026): 03-19.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2026 Basma S Elkhamisy.,et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.