Abstract
Fish muscle protein films were prepared from blue marlin (Makaira mazara Jordan & Evermann) meat which had been stored at 30°C to intentionally lower the meat quality. In this study, the effects of meat quality and pH on the formation of these protein films were investigated. Moreover, ε-polylysine was added to the film-forming solutions to reduce the microbial population of films. The mechanical properties of the films were slightly affected by acidic and alkaline pHs. However, the water vapor permeability of muscle protein films was not affected by either the quality of the fish meat or the pH of the film-forming solutions. SDS-PAGE (sodium dodecyl sulfate- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) showed the degradation of myosin heavy chain in acidic films and polymerization in alkaline films. It was revealed that biodegradable films can be produced even from very low quality fish meat, and that the bacterial population of films could be drastically reduced by the addition of ε-polylysine.
