Effect of Washing and Additives on Gel Formation of Squid Surimi

Effects of washing and additives on the texture of squid surimi gel which has been known to hard to gelation due to high protease activities and many water solubles were studied by SDS-PAGE, compression test, jelly strength and transmission electron microscopy analysis (TEM). Myosin (205 kDa) heavy chain was the major protein in water soluble fractions. It was impossible to make a gel after washing of the minced squid meat. These results suggested that squid (Todarodes pacificus) minced meat does not need a washing for good jelly products. $3.0\%$ of bovine plasma protein (BPP) produced the hardest gel ($16\%$ harder than the control) among the additives including egg white (EW), potato extracts (PE) and transglutaminase-K (TG-K) by compression test (P>0.05). Microstructure of control, $2\%$ EW and $4\%$ TG-K treated gels showed a sponge-like structure with more vacant space. Gels containing $3\%$ BPP formed the most rigid and arranged networks. Those results indicates that poor gel-network formation Was due to the degradation of myofibrillar proteins by proteases contained in the minced meat, which result in non-interlinkage.