Abstract

HERNANDEZ-ROBLEDO, Verónica; URESTI-MARIN, Rocío M.; MARTINEZ-MALDONADO, Miguel Ángel  and  VELAZQUEZ, Gonzalo. Effect of microbial transglutaminase on the mechanical properties of gels obtained from cooked crabmeat. CienciaUAT [online]. 2015, vol.10, n.1, pp.93-103. ISSN 2007-7858.

Cooked crabmeat has been reported to produce weak gels after a three-cycle washing process. Adding microbial transglutaminase (MTGase) can improve the mechanical properties in these gels. The objective of this work was to determine if a single washing treatment combined with adding of MTGase could improve the mechanical properties of crabmeat gels. Blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) were obtained from Laguna Madre Tamaulipas, México and cooked at 120 °C for 20 min to separate the cooked meat from the shell. Cooked meat was homogenized in a cutter with 0 (control), 0.5 % and 1 % MTGase and stuffed in stainless steel tubes and incubated at 40 °C for 30 min before cooking at 90 °C for 15 min. Gels were also obtained by cooking directly at 90 °C for 15 min without previous incubation. Changes on the texture profile analysis were evaluated. The single washing step was enough to improve the mechanical properties of the crabmeat gels and MTGase improved such properties especially when gels were incubated to 40 °C previous to their cooking at 90 °C. The results obtained indicate that it is feasible to produce restructured products from cooked crabmeat by reducing the number of washing cycles if MTGase is added.

Keywords : crabmeat; microbial transglutaminase; washing treatment; gelling.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )