SOLAR DRYING OF HERPADON NEHEREUS – BOMBAY DUCK
The bombay duck or bombil (Herpadon nehereus) is often considered as a delicious fish by connoisseurs of Indian cuisine. It is native to the waters between Mumbai and Kutch in the Arabian sea. Bombay duck is often dried and salted in open air sun drying, however, it suffers from serious drawbacks of contamination due to flies, insects and soil. Solar drying is an excellent way to get rid of these problems as the fish is contained in cabinet or tunnel. In the present work, the solar drying was carried out in a pilot scale solar dryer provided with 20 m2 solar collection area and having capacity to load upto 100 kg wet fish. The role of pretreatment, the inlet air temperature and gas velocity on drying of Bombay duck was studied. The dried fish was tested for its physical and organoleptic properties, besides microbial analysis.
