The rich and diverse fish stocks of Oman, the main source of wealth after oil, are the most important long-term renewable resource. However, they are not fully utilized. A . proportion of the fish harvest is exported, but fish quality represents a serious problem
for export. This happens at a time of increasing demand for marine resources both locally and abroad. Fish product development in the local industry is in its infancy, but it is necessary for manufacturing companies to develop fish products in order to expand sales and achieve organic growth.
The aim of the project is the purposeful development of fish burgers, which should take into consideration the demand of the local market and abroad, availability of good quality fish, cost of raw materials, quality control and effectiveness of processing. Fish source has been identified based on the color and structural properties of the protein or the low market value of the raw material. Fish burger have been designed and preparations made taking into account the aforementioned criteria for the raw material.
In methodology, the large deformation properties of these burgers were identified using compression testing, and specific attributes were handshaken with the overall acceptability of the product on the basis of a hedonic scaling method.
Traditional fish burgers are made mostly with added. starch but fail to meet consumer expectations of eating quality characteristics. Improved formulations, however, can offer a new marketing position in the area of processed fish products. Promising functional ingredients that can improve organoleptic properties include milk protein, citrus pectin and bovine gelatin. The quality of the burgers was further manipulated by introducing additional ingredients to the formulation, e.g. soya protein, K-carrageenan, frozen vegetables and dried fruits.
In conclusion, distinctive upper and lower bounds of the values of hardness,
firmness, adhesiveness and the ratio of inflectional to maximum stress were defined in relation to optimum sensory acceptability of the product.