Browsing by Author "Bilog, Marlen T."

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    Drying rate and system efficiency of photovoltaic solar powered fish dryer
    (Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University - South La Union Campus, 2025-05) Bilog, Marlen T.
    The research aimed to evaluate the drying rate and system efficiency of a photovoltaic solar-powered fish dryer. Drying rate, system efficiency, microbial load analysis, moisture content, water activity and the organoleptic attributes of the dried fish were determined. The treatments are traditional fish dryer(Treatment I), UV plastic fish dryer (Treatment II), and photovoltaic solar powered fish dryer (Treatment III) using randomized complete block design as an experimental design. The drying rate of photovoltaic solar powered fish dryer was comparable with the traditional fish dryer and significantly faster than UV plastic fish dryer, and three dryers are within the effective drying rate due to high temperature and low relative humidity. The system efficiency of photovoltaic solar powered fish dryer was comparable with traditional fish dryer and more efficient compared to UV plastic fish dryer, and within the limit of passive, indirect solar, and natural convection dryers. All treatments are safe to consume since UV plastic and photovoltaic fish dryer obtained <10 CFU/g total coliform count while traditional fish dryer, obtained 90 CFU/g, which did not exceed the regulatory limit. All treatments obtained <10 CFU/g for E. coli count, S. aureus, and Salmonella are not detected/negative for all treatments. In addition, results on moisture content are within the specified International Standard limits for salted dried and fish products but higher than the limit set by BEAD/PNS thus, water activity did not exceed the standard limit. Uncooked dried fish from all treatments are gray, while cooked dried fish are golden brown. Uncooked dried fish of photovoltaic solar powered fish dryer exhibited a strong fishy odor, moderately hard, very good general appearance, and moderate saltiness while the cooked dried fish had a fishy odor, very good general appearance, and strongly perceived saltiness. Overall acceptability showed that uncooked and cooked dried fish of photovoltaic solar powered fish dryer were liked extremely.