Abstract
The effect of commercial processing methods on the nutritional value of ready‐to‐eat (RTE) sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicas was examined in this study. RTE sea cucumber products named RTE‐T and RTE‐V were prepared by two commercial methods, traditional processing, and vacuum cooking, respectively. Proximate, polysaccharide and mineral element composition, amino acid profiles, and true retention values of RTE sea cucumber products were evaluated and compared. Both commercial processing methods significantly changed the nutrient composition in RTE products, except that of Zn and Cu. Comparison of true retention values among RTE products showed that novel commercial method of vacuum cooking resulted in lower nutrient loss and had a shorter processing time than traditional processing. However, soaking after vacuum cooking significantly increased the nutrient loss of RTE sea cucumber. Therefore, vacuum cooking without soaking may be a promising alternative for producing RTE sea cucumber products with high nutritional quality.
Highlights
Sea cucumber has long been traditionally consumed as a medicine and tonic food in Asia and the Middle East (Kiew & Don, 2012)
The contents of the basic components, namely moisture, protein, fat, ash, and carbohydrate in fresh A. japonicus from Dalian, China in this study were similar to those reported in previous investigations of A. japonicus from Qingdao, China (Dong, Dong, Tian, Wang, & Zhang, 2006)
True retention values (TRVs) of all essential amino acid (EAA), with the exception of methionine, were below 55% in both ready-to- eat (RTE)-VS and RTE-T. These results indicate that EAAs were more likely to be lost, compared to non-EAAs during processing
Summary
Sea cucumber has long been traditionally consumed as a medicine and tonic food in Asia and the Middle East (Kiew & Don, 2012). Previous studies have been confirmed that therapeutic properties and medicinal benefits of sea cucumber were linked to many bioactive substances such as glycoprotein, glycosphingolipids, and peptides (Hu, Wang, Wang, Xue, & Wang, 2017; Hu, Wang, Wang, Li et al, 2017; Hu et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2016). In China, approximately 28 of the 134 species of sea cucumber are considered edible (Zhang et al, 2016). In order to meet the increasing demand, the sea cucumber culture technology was developed in China in the 1980s and has matured over the past several decades. Sea cucumber Apostichpous japonicas has become the dominate species cultured in northern China, including in Liaoning and Shandong Provinces. The farmed A. japonicus is rich in proteins, minerals, and special bioactive substances such as polysaccharides (Gao et al, 2016)
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