Abstract
The Warner-Bratzler shear test (WB) with a modified shear head and the punch test (PT) using a rheometer equipped with a cylindrical or a spherical plunger were carried out toassess the textural change in fish meat during drying. These mechanical tests were evaluated by comparing them with a sen-sory analysis of the texture. Fresh atoka mackerel muscle as the testing sample was soaked in 1.0M NaCl (pH 7.0) at 13h, and dried at 15°C and 65% in relative humidity for 0-16h.
The shear force and the shear energy of WB have the highest correlation coefficient among the sen-sory textural scores of hardness and firmness. WB faithfully reflected the change in texture of fish meat during drying. On the contrary, PT was insufficient to detect the change in the texture of dried fish meat. The authors concluded that WB with a modified shear head is eminently suitable for measuring the textural change of fish meat during drying.
