PENGARUH LAMA WAKTU PENGASAPAN DAN JARAK SUMBER PANAS TERHADAP KARAKTERISTIK FISIKOKIMIA IKAN LELE (Clarias Sp.) ASAP PADA ALAT PENGASAPAN TIPE KABINET

Catfish (Clarias sp.) farming is one of the most popular freshwater aquaculture
commodities due to its simple production process and high success rate. However, catfish has a
drawback in the form of high moisture content and a near-neutral pH, making it highly perishable.
This study aimed to examine the effect of heat source distance and smoking duration on the
physicochemical characteristics of smoked catfish, using a cabinet-type smoking device with a
controlled temperature of 70 °C (with a tolerance range of 68 °C–72 °C). The study employed a
Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with two treatment factors: the first factor was smoking
duration (P) with three levels (5, 6, and 7 hours), and the second factor was heat source distance
(J) with two levels (100 cm and 30 cm). Each treatment was replicated three times. The results
showed that heat source distance had no significant effect, while smoking duration significantly
affected moisture content, pH, fat content, protein content, peroxide value, TBA value, total plate
count (TPC), and texture of the smoked catfish. Smoking for 7 hours resulted in the lowest moisture
content (55.84%), lowest pH (6.16), highest fat content (13.83%), and highest protein content
(21.26%). The lowest peroxide value (2.16) and TBA value (0.026), as well as the best microbial
count (TPC) of 2.0 × 10³, were also observed at 7 hours of smoking. In terms of texture, hardness
increased to 2.1872, while springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and adhesiveness
decreased after 7 hours of smoking.