Production of drum dried snack from squid fin

Squid fin is a by-product from small size squid in squid processing .The objective of this study was to add value of squid fin by production of the crispy meat-based snack .In this study, drum dryer was used to form continuous non-crispy sheet as an intermediate product of crispy snack .Then, moist sheet was dried using hot-air dryer to obtain crispy snack .Firstly, the slurry sample with 20%squid fin and 50%surimi as the main ingredients was prepared .The effects of slurry properties and drum drying conditions on sheet forming and properties of continuous moist sheet were studied .Next, drum dried sheet was dried in hot-air dryer to produce the crispy snack .Finally, properties of snack in terms of water activity (aw), moisture content, texture and color were characterized .The results showed that an increase in water content added to prepare slurry from 40 to 80%water decreased apparent viscosity from 24.85 to 7.42 Pa∙s .For drum drying condition, drum surface temperature and drum spacing were fixed at 130 C and 2 mm to obtain approximately 1.5 mm thickness of finished product .The drum speed was varied from 0.33 to 0.5 rpm to study the effect of drying time on snack properties .It was found that all samples in this studied viscosity range could flow and form continuous sheet during drum drying .However, sample with 40%water dried at 0.33 rpm was difficult to remove sheet at drum surface .Then, to produce the crispy texture, moist sheet from drum drying was dried in hot-air dryer at 120 C until the moisture content was about 4 %(w.b ).as a result of aw in range of 0.21-0.24 .However, no significant difference in texture in terms of hardness and crispness and color of studied samples was observed .Therefore, in this study the proposed condition to produce crispy snack with 20 %squid fin was the drum drying of slurry with 40%water added at 130 C, 2 mm of spacing and 0.5 rpm to obtain continuous sheet and then hot-air drying at 120 C for 35 min.