Moisture, fat content and fatty acid composition in breaded and nonbreaded deep-fried black pomfret (Parastromateus niger) fillets

Effects of breading materials and deep-fat frying on fat uptake, moisture content and fatty acidcomposition of the black pomfret (Parastromateus niger) fillets. Black pomfret fillets both breaded andnon-breaded were deep-fat fried in sunflower oil and palm olein. Fat uptake, moisture content and fatty acidcomposition in the fillets were determined. Total fat content in the fillets of both breaded and un-breaded filletsincreased significantly (p 0.05); approximately 10 times in the non-breaded fillets and less than twice in thebreaded fillets. Saturated fatty acids (SFA) of raw fillets significantly (P 0.05) decreased when fried in sunfloweroil. However, it slightly increased during deep-frying in palm olein. A significant (P 0.05) increase in themonounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) was observed in both oils fried samples. The amount of polyunsaturatedfatty acids (PUFA) increased in sunflower oil fried fillets and decreased in palm olein fried ones. The n-6/n-3 ratios were observed to increase in both sunflower oil and palm olein fried fillets. The increases weresignificantly (P 0.05) less in breaded than those in the non-breaded fillets. Breaded fillets had lower changesin the fatty acid composition than non-breaded fillets.