Study of some affecting factors in the production of instant nutritional powder from sea snail Indothais lacera (Born, 1778)

Abstract

Sea snail Indothais lacera (Born, 1778) is found along coral reefs and rocky reefs in the coastal zone from the north to the south of Vietnam. Currently, most of this species are being used as fresh seafood, so their economic value is not high. This study aims to investigate some optimal conditions in the production of instant nutritional powder from Indothais lacera to diversify food varieties and create a high economic value for this sea snail species. Experiments were carried out to examine the conditions of boiling and drying, then some nutritional compositions of snail meat were analysed after being boiled and dried. The results showed that using phosphoric acid to adjust the pH level of water for boiling sea snail indicated the optimum pH level of boiling water was 5.5; the shells were boiled in 5 minutes after boiling. Under these conditions, the protein content of boiled snail meat was 64.18±4.23%. The boiled snail meat was cut into small pieces then dried. The optimal drying condition was the temperature at 50oC for 15 hours, when the snail meat contained the highest content of protein and vitamin C of 66.07±4.81% and 0.66±0.036 mg/g, respectively; the moisture content of dried snail meat was 4.28±0.48% suitable for producing instant nutritional powder