Influence of endogenous protease on heat-induced gelation properties of pink shrimp Pandalus eous meat

Abstract

Pink shrimp Pandalus eous is one of the most important marine products used for sashimi or sushi in Japan. However, irregular-sized shrimp has a very low value, and so value-added utilization of the shrimp is needed by the industry. In the present study, we assessed the gel-forming ability of pink shrimp meat as a first step toward utilization of the shrimp. The gel-forming ability of the shrimp meat was very low: no heat-induced gels could be formed when heated between 30 and 80°C, except for a very weak gel obtained when heated at 90°C for 2 h.On the other hand, shrimp meat in the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline, PMSF, leupeptin, antipain or E-64 formed gels at 60°C. These results suggest that one of the reasons for the low-gel forming ability of the shrimp meat may be due to its high cysteine protease activity. Moreover, these results suggest that the shrimp can be utilized as a raw material of kamaboko products by controlling its endogenous proteases.