The effect of sago and tapioca starch ratio on the linear expansion, oil absorption, and hardness of tilapia fish crackers

Fish cracker or keropok ikan are very famous dried snack food in east coastal area of Malaysia such as Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Kedah. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of sago and tapioca starch ratio on the linear expansion, oil absorption, and hardness of tilapia fish crackers by using red tilapia fish in the making of fish crackers. Six different ratios of flour (sago: tapioca) were used in the formulation of the tilapia fish crackers which were 5:0 (A), 4:1 (B), 3:2 (C), 2:3 (D), 1:4 (E), 0:5 (F). By using one-way ANOVA of SPSS sofiware, there were significance different (p<0.05) among the means of treatment within the ratio of flour. The parameter of tilapia fish cracker was compared to otoshimi fish cracker by using Independent sample T test of SPSS sofiware. The result showed significant different (p<0.05) among the means of the tilapia cracker and otoshimi cracker. The
results showed that the linear expansion and oil absorption increase with the increase of tapioca starch ratio compared to sago starch ratio. However, hardness decreases with the increase ratio of tapioca flour. The linear expansion and oil absorption higher in tilapia fish cracker compared to otoshimi fish cracker.