1Nagasaki Prefectural Institute of Fisheries, Nagasaki 851-2213, 2Laboratory of Marine Food Science, Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041-8611, Japan
For the purpose of utilizing squid meat as textured products, the effects of sodium citrate, sodium tartrate and sodium gluconate on the gel-forming ability was studied considering the effect on myosin degradation by proteases. All of the compounds increased the breaking strength of squid meat gel. Sodium citrate showed the greatest effect among them. The addition of all of the organic salts to the squid meat suspension suppressed myosin degradation when stored at 5°C. This effect was similar to that of EDTA, indicating that organic salts inhibited myosin degradation by metal protease. When studied at 35°C, sodium citrate showed the greatest inhibition on myosin degradation. The effect was almost comparable to the effect achieved by the mixture of EDTA and PMSF. From these results, sodium citrate was concluded to be the most effective additive for increasing the gel strength of squid meat through the inhibition of both serine protease and metal protease.