Acceptability and Sensory Evaluation of Bottled Spanish-Style Rice Eel with Natural Flavorings

Abstract

Rice eel’s acceptability as a table food has been tarnished due to its distinct fishy smell. Hence, most Filipinos considered it as the least preferred viand resulting in the least capture for food that hastened its invasiveness. To lessen the impact of rice eel’s presence in rice farms and encourage its utilization, a post-harvest processing technology with emphasis on bottling was conducted. Three falvorings were tested such as pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius), lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) and guava (Psidium guajava) and were evaluated in terms of appearance, texture, aroma and taste by fifty (50) panelist using a 9-point hedonic scale and determined its general acceptability using the acceptability composite index. Four treatments were prepared following the ingredients and procedure of the Industrial Technology Development Institute – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ITDI). Sensory evaluation shows that Treatment 1 (control), 2 (pandan) and 4 (guava) were statistically not significant in terms of appearance, texture, aroma and taste while Treatment 3 (lemon grass) is significantly lower among treatments. Based on acceptability composite index, Treatment 2 (pandan) rated as rank 1 followed by the Treatment 1 (control), Treatment 4 (guava) and Treatment 3 (lemon grass). It was noted, that the texture and aroma of bottled Spanish- style rice eel with pandan got the highest acceptable rating among the treatments while appearance and taste had the highest acceptability in Treatment 1 (or control). A separate study on the shelf-life and waste utilization of rice eel is highly recommended.