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This study assessed changes in chemical components of the sun dried and hot smoked anchovies processed by traditional and improved methods. Except for the protein-bioavailability analysis which took place once during the fourth week, the samples of fish were assessed weekly. Nutrient composition, shelf-life and protein-bioavailability of processed anchovies were assessed using changes in proximate composition and specific minerals, biochemical indices and protein-digestibility, respectively. The pH levels decreased and TVB-N increased with the number of weeks. These situations implied that spoilage of anchovies occurred gradually. Changes in moisture content, crude protein and calcium indicated significant differences (p ≤ 0.05), in terms of processing methods (hot-smoking against sun-drying). The packaging aspects were not significantly different for all parameters (p > 0.05). In categories of processing methods (traditional versus improved methods), the mean values of crude protein, crude fat and zinc were significantly different (p ≤ 0.05). The mean protein-digestibility values (73.8%) for each pair of processing, packaging and categories of processing aspects were not significantly different from each other (p > 0.05). The implication is that the availability of protein by the healthy human body depends on increase in nutrient-density. It was concluded that the protein-density of fish products processed by improved methods was higher than that of traditional methods. Based on moisture contents of anchovies processed by improved methods, their shelf-life could be extended for more than a month. It was recommended that moisture content less than 10% should be maintained to reduce microbial contamination. The use of hot smoking should be encouraged in order to dry the fish throughout the year. |
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