Current experiment evaluates six filleting methods for Nile tilapia with regard to fillet yield (FIY), ventral abdominal muscles (AMY), hypaxial muscles (HMY), residues (REY), crude skin (CSY), clean skin (CSY) and fleshed (FEY). Methods consisted of: F1 = filleting of whole fish and skinning of the fillet with knife, (WFS); F2 = skinning of whole fish with pliers and filleting (WSF); F3 = headless fish and filleting; skinning of fillet with knife (HFS); F4 = headless fish, skinning with pliers and filleting (HSF); F5 = headless fish; removal of fins; filleting and skinning with knife (HFFS); F6 = headless fish; removal of fins, skinning with pliers and filleting (HFSF). Twenty tilapias were used for each treatment in a completely randomized design. Filleting method affected all analyzed yield. WSF had the best fillet yield and hypaxial muscle (36.58% and 4.22%, respectively); lowest yield was provided by HFS (33.66% and 3.31%, respectively). With regard to abdominal muscle, HFFS (2.00%) and HFSF (2.02%) were the best. In the case of residues, WSF gave the best result (57.96%); HSF was the best method for clean skin and fleshing (4.14% and 45.52%, respectively), with WSF (4,00% and 46.11%) as next to best result.
fillet processing; Oreochromis niloticus; fillet yield; fish technology
