Ready-to-prepare soup mix enriched with sea cucumbers: production, sensory attributes and nutritional composition

Sea cucumbers are considered healthy and high in nutritive value. Conversely however, limited consumption of sea cucumbers has been reported in many parts of the world. This study was done to produce a ready-to-prepare soup mix incorporating the sea cucumber aiming to popularize the sea cucumber consumption. The highly abundant low-value Bohadschia vitiensis in the coastal waters of Sri Lanka was selected to prepare this soup mix. Fresh B. vitiensis samples (n = 250) were collected from major sea cucumber landing sites of the northwest coast. Out of the seven compositions prepared initially, three compositions; 20%, 40% and 60% were selected. The best composition among these was selected through a sensory test performed using a semi-trained panel (n = 30) at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. The initial chemical and microbial qualities of the selected soup mix were analyzed and the best packaging material was selected. Results showed that the soup mix with 40% sea cucumber flour was the best composition as it reported significantly higher sensory scores than the other two mixes (p ≤ 0.05, Friedman). This soup mix exhibited high protein (21.43 ± 1.21%), low fat (4.98 ± 0.23%) and its oxygen radical absorbance capacity was 1.04 ± 0.13 mg Trolox equivalents/g. Coliforms and Staphylococcus aureus colonies were absent in the soup mix. The total plate count (1.9 × 10² CFU/g), yeast and mold count (0.7 × 10² CFU/g) and the heavy metal contents were within the safe limit for human consumption. The Polyester-Aluminum-PE was selected as the best packaging material which ensured 6 weeks storage time at room temperature.