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Meatballs are meat-based food products that are added with spices, formed round, and then boiled. Generally, meatballs are made from meat that contains high cholesterol and is expensive. Therefore, it is used as fish as an alternative to the basic ingredients for making meatballs. Whole tilapia meatballs have a soft texture and are less compact because there are bones, scales, fins, and skin, causing the gelling power to be low. For this reason, in the whole tilapia dough, it is necessary to add gelling ingredients. Based on the above, this study aims to determine the quality of whole tilapia meatballs with the addition of gelling agents including carrageenan, glucomannan, xanthan gum, and CMC as much as 1.5%. Followed by hedonic and sensory tests including shape, color, aroma, texture, and taste. This type of research is purely experimental using the completely randomized design (RAL) method with three repetitions. This type of research data is primary data sourced from 5 panelists. The data were analyzed using Variance Analysis (ANOVA), if F count > F table then continued with the Duncan Test. The results showed that gelling materials have a significant effect on color quality, compact texture, chewy texture, and hedonic test. The highest overall scores were shaping 4.87, color 4.73, aroma 4.27, compact texture 4.73, chewy texture 4.60, taste 4.73, and hedonic test 4.07. The best result in this study was the addition of a gelling, namely carrageenan.

Meatballs, Whole Tilapia, Gelling Agent