Potential of recovered proteins from invasive green crabs (Carcinus maenas) as a functional food ingredient

Invasive green crabs contain high-quality proteins that have potential as functional ingredients in formulated foods. This study evaluated the functional properties and compositional characteristics of green crab proteins recovered by isoelectric solubilization/precipitation (ISP).

Mechanically separated green crab mince (control) was solubilized at pH 2 (PP2) and pH 10 (PP10), then proteins were precipitated at pH 5.5 and subsequently dried. Yield of recovered protein powder was approximately 1.5 times higher for PP2 than for PP10. Compared with the control (230 g kg-1 ), ash content was reduced in PP2 (54 g kg-1 ) and PP10 (23 g kg-1 ) samples. PP2 contained predominantly large-molecular-weight proteins, while small-molecular-weight proteins were distributed in PP10. With regard to functional properties, at pH 7 and 8, solubility of PP10 was significantly higher than that of PP2. At pH 7.5, PP10 exhibited significantly higher emulsifying activity (1482 m2 g-1 ) than PP2 (858 m2 g-1 ) and the control (958 m2 g-1 ). PP2 showed statistically higher gelation activity and had higher L* value than PP10 and the control.

The results indicate that recovered green crab proteins have functional properties potentially useful for formulated foods, and that these functional properties can be modified by the solubilization pH during the recovery process. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.