Jamaluddin, Reski Febyanti Rauf, Indrayani, Andi Alamsyah Rivai
Goby fish (Sicyopterus sp.), a globally distributed freshwater genus, is widely marketed as a dried product. However, traditional sun drying is inefficient, weather-dependent, and prone to quality degradation problems. Although microwave drying offers a rapid dehydration alternative, it often induces textural hardening and non-uniform heating. To mitigate these limitations, pretreatments (blanching and salt immersion) were hypothesized to modify the tissue matrix, thereby improving moisture diffusivity and preserving sensory quality. This study analyzed the effects of microwave power (240, 400, and 640 W) and pretreatment (control, blanching, and salt immersion) on the drying kinetics and product quality of dried goby fish. Drying kinetics were evaluated to accurately model the moisture transfer mechanism and determine the activation energy, alongside quality characteristics (proximate, sensory, color, and fatty acid profiles). The results showed that drying occurred exclusively during the falling-rate period and was best described by the Modified Midilli-Kucuk model. Effective moisture diffusivity significantly increased with power, ranging from 1.04 × 10− 8 to 4.90 × 10− 8 m2/s, while salt immersion resulted in the highest activation energy (11.25 W/g). Both microwave power and pretreatment were critical factors influencing the final quality (p < 0.05). Notably, higher power levels significantly reduced lightness, with L* values dropping to a minimum of 36.13 in the 640 W control group. While the 640 W salt-immersion treatment yielded the lowest moisture content (0.11%db), the samples dried at 400 W with salt immersion achieved the highest sensory preference. Furthermore, within the salt-immersed group, the 640 W treatment induced the most significant nutritional degradation, reducing total unsaturated fatty acids to 8.50 ± 0.79%, compared to 8.74 ± 0.82% at 400 W and 9.60 ± 0.83% at 240 W. This study concludes that coupling 400 W power with salt immersion offers an optimal balance, maximizing consumer acceptance and processing efficiency while minimizing undesirable oxidative degradation observed at higher power levels. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2026.
Department of Agricultural Industrial Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Makassar, 90224, Indonesia; Department of Fisheries Science, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Makassar, 90224, Indonesia
