Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(4): 3186-3194 3186 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.704.361 Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of Improvised Solar Drier for Preservation of Fish Olipriya Biswas 1* , Annanda Das 2 , Sontu Pahan 2 , Swarup Singh 2 and P. Kandasami 1 1 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Visvabharati, Santinikatan, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Livestock Products Technology, WBUAFS, Kolkata, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Fish is an important source of protein in the daily diet and the dried fish also plays the same role in India. Drying is the traditional method of preserving fish since the modernization of society. Drying of fish basically is carried out by traditional sun drying method. In sun drying method, drying procedure is not so hygienic and thus fishes are vulnerable to infestation of insect and larva during the drying process. To avoid and prevent this infestation and for safe storage purposes, farmers used to apply various insecticides including DDT in fish. This fishes are highly contaminated which helps to increase broad spectrum of environmental and health risks. A whole fresh fish contains up to 80% of water and due to this reason it is a highly perishable material. When moisture content is decreased, contaminating agents cannot survive and as a result autolytic activity is greatly reduced. Tropical species of fishes generally withstand up to temperatures ranges of 45 to 50 ˚C before proteins are denatured or cooking starts. In major area of the world, awareness is growing about the fact that renewable energy has an important role to extend technology to the farmer in many developing countries to increase their productivity (Waewsak et al., 2006). Solar drying can be considered as an elaboration of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 04 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com A study was carried out to compare the change in various quality parameters of Bombay duck (Harpadon nehereus) fish under conventional sun drying and improvised solar drying method using concentrating solar (CS) technology during storage at room temperature under aerobic packaging conditions in Sunderban area of West Bengal. The results of the current study revealed that there were no significant differences in the various quality parameters of dried fish samples in both the drying methods. However a significant (p<0.05) decreasing trend in protein content, hardness and fracturability was observed with the advancing storage period. A significant (p<0.05) increase in the mean moisture content, springiness value, water activity, thiobarbituric acid reacting substances value and yeast and mould count was observed during the storage period in both the drying methods. An absence in total plate counts of dried fish samples in both methods was observed throughout the storage period. Keywords Conventional sun drying, Improvised solar drying, Bombay duck, CS technology, Fish Accepted: 26 March 2018 Available Online: 10 April 2018 Article Info