Nutritional and sensory evaluation of skipjack furikake-substituted catfish

Furikake is a traditional Japanese spice used as a condiment sprinkled on rice, comprising dried skipjack or salmon flakes, toasted sesame seeds, and toasted dried seaweed. Due to the higher price of skipjack, there is an attempt to substitute it with a more affordable fish, catfish. This research investigated the impact of this substitution in the development of Japanese furikake on its nutritional values and sensory acceptance. There were five formulations consisting of various percentage ratios of dried skipjack and catfish flakes, namely formula 1 (100:0), formula 2 (75:25), formula 3 (50:50), formula 4 (25:75), and formula 5 (0:100). The findings in proximate analysis indicated no significant difference between samples in terms of moisture (2.87-3.29%), ash (2.64-3.29%), and fat (25.81-26.26%), meanwhile the protein content tended to decrease with up to 50% of catfish substitution (23.33-21.58%) and is significantly different when substituted with more than 50% catfish (p<0.05). Sensory analysis showed no significant difference among samples in all sensory parameters. Overall, the findings in this study suggest that catfish is a potential substitute in Japanese furikake formulation, from 25% up to 100% substitution with minimal nutritional content difference.