Effect of Preservation Temperature on the Quality of Defrosted Surimi

Abstract

Effect of preservation temperature on the quality of defrosted surimi of Alaska pollack was studied as a function of time. For the quality determination of surimi, the hardness of kamaboko gel prepared by grinding surimi with 3% salt and cooking, and also some biochemical properties of myofibrils in the surimi were used.
When surimi kept at an even temperature in the range of 2-35°C, logarithm of hardness of gel vs storage time gave straight lines, indicating that thermal deterioration for gel forming ability of surimi followed first order kinetics. The apparent rate constants (k_j×10^-5s^-1) were then ca'culated as 0.14 at 2°C, 0.4 at 10°C, 1.3 at 20°C, and 28 at 30°C, respectively. A comparison of KJ to the other fish species showed that gel forming ability of the surimi was rapidly lost in the order of Alaska pollack, white croaker, and tilapia from the best to the worst in the descending order.
At above 25°C, changes in ATP ase activity, contractibility, and solubility for myofibrils in surimi during preservation were similar to that in the hardness of kamaboko gel prepared from the same material. However, at lower temperatures (2°-20°C), the gel forming ability of surimi deteriorated rapidly than all the biochemical properties of myofibrils.