Functional and structural characteristics of chocolate flavoured cake incorporated with surimi powder from Nemipterus...

Surimi is the concentrated myofibrillar protein extracted from fish. In this study, surimi prepared from Nemipterus species of fish was dried by two methods such as freeze drying and oven drying and was pulverized and sieved. The maida to bake chocolate flavoured cakes was replaced at 10% with freeze dried surimi powder (FDS) and oven dried surimi (ODS) powder separately. The aim of the study was to analyse the functional and structural characteristics of chocolate flavoured cake incorporated with surimi powder from Nemipterus Species. The functional characteristics of the ingredients and cakes were analysed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and assignments of the peaks were assigned. The presence of shifts of peak around 1550 cm^-1 in cakes as compared to the ingredients suggested a change in protein structure. FTIR spectra of ingredients and cake indicated the changes in protein structure in the cakes, probably due to the exposure of cakes to higher temperature during baking. Scanning electron microscopic images of control cake, cake incorporated with 10% FDS powder and cake incorporated with 10% ODS powder revealed the presence of large number of pores in all the cakes. FDS cakes had higher number of micro-pores than control and ODS cakes. Evenness in structure was higher in control cake than FDS and ODS cakes.