The most important waste material in shrimp processing industries is shrimp head, comprising about 30ữ35% of whole shrimp weight. This waste is rich in nutrients are being wasted. This waste is mainly dried to powder and use for food and feed industries. This study was designed to evaluate the factors affecting the drying process of shrimp head meat. The water activity (a_w) value, color parameters, and the protein content were the main investigations of this research. In this study, minced shrimp head meat was heated at temperature ranging from 60 ºC to 70, 80 and 90 ºC for 5 to 50 minutes with 10 minutes interval. The water activity value and the color parameter at respective heating temperature were also investigated. The results showed that drying at 65 ºC has low a_w value and high soluble protein content is suitable for product. In addition, thermal inactivation of protease at temperature ranging from 60 to 90 ºC of shrimp head meat resulted in a fractional conversion model. When minced shrimp head meat was treated at 80ºC for 30 minutes before drying at 65ºC to reach 6 % moisture was the most suitable value to grind into powder. The rate of powder production through sieve (Size: 1mm x 1mm diameter) is over 90%, and showed special color of dried shrimp, low water activity (0.38) and high soluble protein content with approximately 13 % of dry material. Therefore, the study results demonstrated that drying and grinding shrimp head meat with above condition has potential application in feed and food industries, which could increase economic efficiency and reduce the waste in the environment.

Keywords: drying, moisture, shrimp head meat powder, thermal inactivation, water activity