Abstract
Since 1990's, utilization of hydrostatic pressure (HP) has been investigated as a new technique for food processing in Japan, and subsequently Europe and USA. We also started the study and especially chose the utilization of relatively low HP range (lower than 100MPa) in the view of practice. The pressure range, which can prevent microorganisms from growing, was between 40-70 MPa differently from spices of them. For instance, the growth of yeast, lactic acid bacteria and bacillus was inhibited at 40 MPa, 70 MPa, and 50 MPa, respectively. Then, we applied the growth inhibition of bacteria by HP to autolytic hydrolysis of unsalted fish. When the autolytic hydrolyses of anchovy, squid liver and the guts of sea cucumber were carried out under pressurization, each autolytic hydrolysis went well without decomposition. The total nitrogen, formol nitrogen and amino acids concentration of the extracts were relatively high, compared with the extracts produced by salting 20% NaCl (a traditional way) . An equipment for the purpose of carrying out the autolytic hydrolysis of fish under pressurization was also developed by a company in Hiroshima (TOYO KOATSU Co., Ltd) . The equipment could realize this way that we have proposed. We hope that the way of producing autolytic hydrolysate without addition of salt is applied to various marine materials from now on.
