Standardization of Process Parameters for Ready-to-Eat Crab Koftha in Indigenous Polymer-Coated Tin-Free Steel Cans S. Abhilash, P. G. Sreenath 1 , C. N. Ravishankar* and T. K. Srinivasa Gopal Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, P.O. Matsyapuri, Cochin -682 029, India Fishery Technology 50 (2013) : 154 - 160 Abstract Koftha is a traditional North Indian food consisting of whole cooked potatoes in spicy gravy. Fried crab balls with koftha medium was packed in indigenous polymer-coated easy open-end tin-free steel cans of 307 109 size and processed at 121.1 o C to three different F 0 values of 5, 6 and 7 with cook values of 61, 75 and 78 min respectively. The fried and processed crab balls were evaluated by sensory analysis, instrumental texture and colour analysis. Even though the processed cans for all three F 0 values were found to be commercially sterile, the product processed to F 0 6 was found to be ideal with regard to all sensory attributes. The one way analysis of variance of all the instrumental textural characteristics viz., hardness 1, hardness 2, cohesive- ness, springiness, gumminess and chewiness of different thermal process treatments were found to be significant at 5% level of significance. The treatment means comparisons for instrumental textural characteristics of different thermal process treatments were performed using Tukeys Test and the values were maximum for fried crab balls and minimum for crab balls processed to F 0 6 except for gumminess which was minimum for F 0 7. Consid- ering the sensory and instrumental textural charac- teristics, F 0 6 was identified as the optimum process for crab koftha. Keywords: Crab koftha, polymer-coated tin-free steel cans, heat penetration, texture profile analysis, colour analysis Received 09 March 2011; Revised 14 January 2013; Accepted 21 January 2013 1 Present Address: Assistant Director, MPEDA, Cochin - 682 036, India * E-mail: cnrs2000@rediffmail.com Introduction Ready-to-eat or convenience foods are designed to save time in the kitchen and for convenience as they require minimum preparation. Typically, they need to be just warmed and are packed assuming a long shelf life with little loss of flavour and nutrients over time. Ready-to-eat foods traditionally processed in rigid containers like tin and aluminum cans (Vijayan & Balachandran, 1986; Mohan, 2004), had disadvan- tages like higher cost of container, metallic flavour and discolouration of the product. The higher cost of the container resulted in the collapse of canning industry in India (Sreenath et al., 2007). An innovation in this direction is the indigenous polymer-coated easy open-end tin-free steel (TFS) cans. The suitability of TFS for packing various products like fruits, vegetables and milk powder has been described by Mc Farlane (1970) and Naresh et al. (1980). The unique features of the TFS cans like EOEs (Easy Open Ends), universal lacquer and comparatively lower price make it an ideal container for thermal processing of fish and fish products (Sreenath et al., 2007). The physical properties of indigenous polymer- coated TFS cans such as the air pressure test, tests for food contact applications, test for seam integrity and the double seam integrity parameters such as percentage overlap, body plate thickness and endplate thickness were conducted by Sreenath et al. (2008). The results indicated that the indigenous polymer-coated EOE TFS cans are suitable for the thermal processing of fish and fish products. Crab is an important seafood commodity, relished by many communities throughout the world. In India, crab is preferred along the southern coast in traditional fried and curry recipes. Crab items are being exported to a number of countries contributing 1% by quantity and 1.9% by value to the total export of marine products from India during the year 2006-2007 (MPEDA, 2008). Even ' 2013 Society of Fisheries Technologists (India)