No abstract

A study was carried out to determine the effects of the steaming process on the proximate composition of the dark and white muscle tissue of Thunnus tonggol sampled from Terengganu waters. The mean percentage of moisture, ash, lipid, and protein of the raw dark muscle was 59.1%, 3.8%, 12.1% and 33.9%, while in the raw white muscle were 66.7%, 2.9%, 2.7% and 33.9%, respectively. Both types of muscle showed a significantly different value in the lipid content. There was significant increase recorded in the protein content in both types of muscle after the steaming process (79.1% and 93.0% in dark and white muscles, respectively). Likewise, the percentage of ash showed some increment with 4.8% in the dark muscle and 7.9% in the white muscle. However, the cooking process decreased the percentage of moisture and lipid in both dark and white muscles. The percentage of moisture in dark muscle was reduced to 7.7%, and 9.7% in white muscle. On the other hand, percentage of lipid content in both types of muscles after the steaming process was 0.43% in dark muscle and 0.03% in white muscle. This study reveals that the cooking process had considerable effects on the proximate composition of both dark and white muscles.