Improvement of fiber-like chewiness of dried pork: Fish cubes and mince with added enzymes

Abstract

Consumers like dried meat slice, but the desired fiber-like chewiness may be affected by the addition of fish source. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of component mixture (pork and fish); particle size (fish mince or cube) and enzyme (transglutaminase and laccase) on dried slice texture. Furthermore, the reason was shown by water distribution, protein secondary structure, and microstructure. Results showed that hardness, chewiness, and tensile strength were the highest at the rate of pork and fish mince by 6:4; at the rate of fish cube and mince by 5:5; and at the addition of transglutaminase (TG) by 0.8%. To explore its reason, it showed the largest water peak area with 3983.8 ± 45.9, 4817.8 ± 209.3 and 3642.5 ± 18.1, the largest decrease of α-helix by 31.1%, 1.8%, 22.6%, and the most compact fiber-like morphology in the above three groups. This study indicated that a slight cross-linking between pork and fish proteins by TG was benefit for fiber-like chewiness, while over-cross-linking was detrimental with more elastic structure formed. In conclusion, percentage of pork to fish, fish cube to mince, and the addition amount of TG all contributed to the final fiber-like chewiness of dried slice significantly.