The Effect of High Pressure and Subzero Temperature on Gelation of Washed Cod and Salmon Meat

The objective of the present work is to examine the influence of pressure up to 193 MPa at subzero temperature (without freezing of water) on myofibrillar proteins of salmon and cod meat and on the properties of gels obtained from washed mince of these fish. The solubility of proteins from myofibrils of cod and salmon meat suspended in 100 mM KCl solution increased after treating the samples with pressure above 60 MPa. The results of SDS- -PAGE analysis showed that under these conditions two myosin light chains, tropomyosin and troponin T were released from myofibrils. The solubility of proteins in 0.9 M NaCl solution of washed fish meat after pressure treatment at 60 MPa and -5 °C decreased to about 80-90% and at 193 MPa and -20 °C to 60%. Pressurization of cod meat decreased only slightly the solubility of proteins in SDS and urea solution and the solubility of salmon meat was similar to that in the unpressurized sample. There were no differences in the electrophoretic pattern of proteins from untreated and pressurized cod and salmon meat in the range of 60 to 193 MPa and -5 to -20 °C. The pressure treatment of washed salmon and cod meat at a temperature below 0 °C induced gelation; on the other hand, hardness of gels was lower by 28 and 26%, respectively, than that of gels formed by heating. The salmon and cod gels pressurized at 193 MPa and -20 °C and then heated were much harder than only pressurized or heated gels.