Evaluation of flavour bearing properties from Acetes spp., an underutilized catch along the Maharashtra coast, India

Acetes spp. is an underutilized shellfish resource under the non-penaeid shrimp category and is popularly known as "paste shrimp". It is widely distributed in different parts of the world and is found along the coast of many countries bordering the Indian Ocean. In India, most of this shrimp is landed along the north-west coast of the country. Seafood flavour has an importance in the processing industries, attributed to the high delicacy and several health benefits. The conventional extraction methods of seafood flavour result in low yield and possess undesirable off-flavours. Hence, the present work focused on a milder enzymatic extraction method, to retain the natural amino acids such as glutamic acid, lysine, leucine and glycine which are mainly responsible for imparting the umami flavor to the end product. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the Acetes spp. was done using three different enzymes, namely, papain, pepsin and trypsin (0.25% enzyme to substrate ratio) to extract the flavour compound. Sensory analysis was done for the flavour compound. Extraction using enzyme pepsin resulted in a higher acceptability rate (8.00 ± 0.61), followed by papain (7.38 ± 0.48) and trypsin (7.00 ± 0.79). The present study highlights the potential of seafood for the extraction of flavour compounds using enzymes.