Nutritional Crispy from Fish Scales for Human Diet

Development of affordable foods for low-income communities is indeed necessary for the overall human societal development. Fish scales, generally considered as a waste from the fish industry, were used for the development of ready-to eat crispy. The crispy was developed in a three-step process of acid treatment, drying, and frying. Standardization of acid treatment was done using 1%, 5%, and 10% citric acid. With increase in acid concentration, the overall sensory acceptability of the samples increased. The in-vitro protein digestibility was 84% for the crispy with highest acid concentration. The developed crispy had an essential amino acid index of 0.77 and was a good source of Ca, P, Na, Mg, and K. The instrumental hardness was 0.57N, and the TBARS value was 0.47 mg malonaldehyde/Kg. Thus, a nutrient rich, low cost diet can be developed from fish scales.