Occurrence of a deeper red colour in prawn pulp prepared from iced-prawns

In commerce, great importance is given to the color of the dry prawn pulp in its quality evaluation. The possible correlation between this color factor to the iced or not iced condition of the raw prawn used, is investigated. The study reveals that as the icing period of the raw material increases the color of the finished product proportionately intensifies to a bright red compared to light brownish yellow or orange color of the product from the not iced prawn, and at the same time the other characteristics like flavor and taste deteriorates as the time of icing advances. This finding tends to show that the color factor does not reflect the true quality of prawn pulp. Based on chemical data it is suggested that "browning" due to Maillard reaction may have an important role in this color phenomena.

Suitability of sodium lactate as cryoprotectant and its effect on gel forming ability and protein denaturation of croaker fish surimi during frozen storage

The effect of sodium lactate is compared with sucrose + sorbitol + sodium tri-poly phosphate as cryoprotectant on gel forming ability & protein denaturation of croaker surimi during frozen storage at -20±2°C for 90 days was evaluated. The quality of Croaker surimi with 6% (w/v) sodium lactate was examined in terms of biochemical parameters of muscle protein, thaw drip, gel strength and calcium ATPase activity :.omparing with those of surimi added with sucrose/sorbitol & without additive as control. Both the cryoprotectants minimized the negative effects of frozen storage on physico-chemical traits of myofibrillar proteins which was evident from the biochemical and sensory parameters. The residual Ca2+ ATPase activity and gel strength of surimi with sodium lactate were higher than those of control throughout 90 days of storage. Ca2+ A TPase activity and gel strength found a high positive correlation. From the results, it was found that sodium lactate was equally effective in preservation of croaker muscle protein native structure during frozen storage as the sucrose/ sorbitol and also less sweet without any risk of maillard browning.

Influence of muscle fats on the quality of intermediate moisture fish

Chrysicthys nigrodigitatus with 12.95% fat having an iodine value of 74.8 and a saponification number of 198.48 and Citharinus citherus containing only 3.25% fat with iodine value of 67.8 and a saponification number of 145.86 were studied as examples of fatty and lean fishes respectively. The intermediate moisture (IM) products of both fish types compared with normal cooked samples, were evaluated as of acceptable colour, odour, texure and juiciness but of inferior taste due to the glycerol impact. However, during storage at 30°C the IM products became increasingly less acceptable with the deterioration being greater in the fatty fish than in the lean fish, although the fatty IM fish was superior to the IM lean fish with regard to water retention and juiciness. Overall quality differences were most apparent in colour and odour with the fatty IM fish being worse. The fatty fish had also greater evolution of TEA-reactive carbonyl breakdown products of lipid oxidation which were subsequently used up in non-enzymic browning producing the correspondingly darker fish colour and greater off odour.