Surimi, production

Weerasinghe, V. 1995. Characterization of Pacific whiting protease and food grade inhibitors for surimi production. M.S. thesis. Oregon State University, Corvallis. 

Surimi is fish paste from deboned fish used to make simulated crab legs and other seafood. For preservation the paste is blended with cryoprotectants, such as sucrose, sorbitol and phosphates, and frozen. To make the final product, the frozen paste is thawed, blended with starch and extruded as a film onto a belt. The belt takes the film into an oven that heat-denatures the fish protein and cooks the starch. The film is then rolled to form striations, shaped, colored and cut. Depending on the required distribution, the product is frozen or refrigerated. Potato and tapioca starch were used in surimi products 400 years ago, since they provided a cohesive, elastic matrix consistent with seafood. Frozen distribution has made the use of highly-stabilized, moderately crosslinked tapioca starch popular, alone or with native tapioca starch. Modified waxy maize products are used, as is unmodified com starch, for increased cuttability. Kim188 reported that the gel strengthening ability of starch correlates with starch paste viscosity. 

Sucrose and sorbitol are commonly used in frozen surimi processing. However, sucrose imparts a sweet taste to surimi products, which is undesirable to the consumer (Sych et al., 1990 Auh et al., 1999 Sultanbawa and Li-Chan, 2001). Thus, the use of other cryoprotectants to reduce sweetness but exhibit the equivalent cryoprotective effect is required. Auh et al. (1999) used highly concentrated branched oligosaccharide mixture (HBOS) as cryoprotectant in fish protein. An addition of HBOS resulted in the remainder Ca -ATPase activity of actomyosin extracted from Alaska pollock after freeze-thawing the best stabilization effect of HBOS was observed at a concentration of 8%. Sych et al. (1990) studied the cryoprotective effects of lactitol dehydrate, polydextrose, and palitinit at 8% (w/w) in cod surimi in comparison with an industrial control (sucrose/sorbitol, 1 1). The... 

Benjakul, S., Visessangaun, W., Thongkaew, C., and Tanaka, M. 2005a. Effect of frozen storage on chemical and gel-forming properties of fish commonly used for surimi production in Thailand. Food Hydrocolloids 19 197-207. 

Careful preparation is required during fat fish surimi production to avoid lipid oxidation. Washing increased the (n-3) PUFA contribution to lipids remaining in the mince (Mestiri et al., 1992). However, after two rinses of minced herring, its (n-3) PUFA content decreased, most likely as a result of oxidation. During a half-year storage, both free and bound lipids of washed minces were more oxidized than those in unwashed minces (Kofakowska et al., 1997). 

Figure 2.1 Surimi production (the refinement of muscle protein).

In the traditional process for fish surimi production, the fish flesh is washed on large screens and the oil is washed through the screens. This process is suitable for the separation of the liquid oil from fish however, solid fats (such as occur in red meat) would not separate in this way but would remain on the screens with the water-insoluble proteins. Red meat also contains higher levels of fat than white fish. Fat separation from meat is therefore more difficult than from fish. Separation can be carried out using flotation and skimming however, this introduces further steps into the process and increases processing times. 

Knight et al. (1991a) carried out further trials to optimise the production of surimi from beef MSM. The process devised for beef surimi production... 

Knight, M.K., Choo, B.K., Crosland, A.R., Jolley, P.D. and Wood, J.M. (1989) Red meat and poultry surimi production. Leatherhead Food R.A. Project Y078IM060 report (Part ) ... 

R. Yabe. Near-infrared transmittance application for determining moisture content of surimi products. In Proc 2nd Inti NIRS Conf Tsukuba, Japan 190-195, 1989. 

Protein-Based Substitutes. Several plant and animal-based proteins have been used in processed meat products to increase yields, reduce reformulation costs, enhance specific functional properties, and decrease fat content. Examples of these protein additives are wheat flour, wheat gluten, soy flour, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, textured soy protein, cottonseed flour, oat flour, com germ meal, nonfat dry milk, caseinates, whey proteins, surimi, blood plasma, and egg proteins. Most of these protein ingredients can be included in cooked sausages with a maximum level allowed up to 3.5% of the formulation, except soy protein isolate and caseinates are restricted to 2% (44). 

Hamada, Y., Genka, E., Ohira, M., Nagashima, Y., and Shiomi, K. (2000). Allergenicity of fish paste products and surimi from walleye Pollack. Shokuhin Eiseigaku Zasshi 41, 38 43 (in Japanese). 

A method for the removal of parvalbumin due to its high water solubility is thorough washing of the fish meat. Such products (particularly surimi) present an allergen pattern different from the native fish species with reduced allergenicity due to no detectable parvalbumin but other allergens (Mata et al. 1994). 

Food products can also be unexpectedly derived from crustacean. Surimi (seafood paste) is usually derived from fish, but can in some countries contain a variety of crustacean species (Hamada et al. 2000 Mata et al. 1994). 

Much research has been devoted to working out optimum parameters of producing different protein concentrates from fish and krill (Lanier, 1994). While the products have high nutritional value and many are tasteless and odorless, some, manufactured in denaturing conditions, lack the desired functional properties. A good example is the fish protein concentrate obtained by hot azeotropic isopropanol extraction. On the other hand, a concentrate of myofibrillar proteins known as surimi, produced mainly from fish and to a lesser extent from poultry and meat, is highly functional. 

Yoon, K.S. and Lee, C.M., Effect of powdered cellulose on the texture and freeze-thaw stability of surimi-based shellfish analog products, J. Food Sci., 55, 87, 1990. 

There is a decrease in the consumption of red meat in response to concern about health effects of fat and cholesterol — which are implicated in coronary heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and obesity. Parallel to this is the increase in the use of poultry and fish. The dollar value of poultry in 1984 was 15.4 billion, an increase of 37% from 1983. Seafood per capita consumption was 13.6 pounds in 1984, an all-time high. The use of surimi, a restructured fish product, is on the rise and could reach a billion pounds in 1990. A simulated form of crab legs using surimi technology is gaining adherents. 

Thus, the models for initial experiments included crude enzyme preparations from plants that were incorporated into pollack surimi which is a washed, minced fish flesh product widely used as a base for seafood analogs such as imitation crab. It exhibits relatively mild fish-like aromas, and its aroma seems to respond well to added plant-based enzyme preparations. 

When mushroom homogenates were incubated with surimi, enhanced plant-like aromas somewhat reminiscent of oysters were produced, and this treatment also resulted In the masking of some of the fish-like aromas of the surimi. Cucumber homogenates developed strong cucumber, cardboard-like aromas which appear to be contributed principally by 2-nonenal and 2,6-nonadienal. As a result, the cucumber homogenates caused undesirable and unbalanced aromas that did not suppress unpleasant fishiness. Watermelon fruit extracts behaved similarly, and also provided unbalanced sweet aromas to surimi. Tests to date have been limited to short-term incubations of crude enzyme preparations with surimi. Further exploration of more purified and controlled plant-based flavor-generating enzyme systems for the production of fresh seafood-like aromas, and especially those for the eight-carbon volatile aroma compounds, appear warrented. 

In Japan, there are various products and processes preformed with HP, for example, gels of meat (studying the influence on flavor), of soy proteins, and of egg yolk and white. Pressurization is also used for gelating surimi, sardine, tuna fish, squid, starches, and alginates. HP induces the opposite behavior in the sol-gel transition of carragenine and agarose modifies the... 

Helbing A, Lopez M, Lehrer SB (1992). Fish allergy Is it a real problem with surimi-based products Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol, 99 452-455. 

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