Debittered tilapia protein hydrolysate incorporated functionalized nutrition bar: Application of fuzzy modeling for sensory analysis

The study aimed to investigate the effect of tilapia protein hydrolysate (TPH) on the nutritional, physicochemical, and sensory properties of a nutrition bar at inclusion levels of 0 (NTPH0), 5 (NTPH5), 10 (NTPH10), and 15 (NTPH15) g/100 g. The addition of TPH significantly ( p < 0.05) increased the moisture, protein, and ash content while reducing the fat, carbohydrate, dietary fiber, and caloric value when compared to the control. The texture analysis indicated that, across the range from NTPH0 to NTPH15, hardness ranged between 12.99 and 15.71 N, cohesiveness between 0.12 and 0.15 N, springiness between 0.74 and 0.72 mm, gumminess between 0.05 and 0.15 N and chewiness between 0.82 and 0.57 N mm. In terms of color attributes, the lightness ( L*) values decreased, while the a* and b* values increased. The total color difference (Δ E ) showed that there was no visually perceptible color difference to consumers when NTPH0 was used as the reference. The sensory study conducted using fuzzy logic analysis revealed that the nutrition bar formulated with 10 g/100 g TPH (NTPH10) exhibited the highest sensory quality and overall acceptability.