Effects of innovative gelation and modified tapioca starches on the physicochemical properties of surimi gel during frozen storage

Summary This study presented a comparative evaluation of the effects of 5% tapioca starch, acetylated distarch phosphate and hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate (HPDSP) on the changes in surimi gel quality after the traditional gelation procedure (suwari‐cooking‐freezing) and a novel gelation procedure (suwari‐freezing‐cooking, SFC). Overall, subjected to the SFC procedure, lower hydrophobic interactions, lower total sulphydryl group content, higher disulphide bond content and a more orderly protein conformation was observed in the HPDSP‐surimi gel. These changes resulted in smaller drip loss, stabler breaking force and deformation, and less structural damage during frozen storage. Since the strongest hydrophilicity of HPDSP and the lowest gelatinisation temperature (63.15 °C), when it was reheated and then gelatinized, it interacted more closely with the protein. These findings indicated that subjected to the SFC procedure, the addition of 5% HPDSP effectively decreased the changes in the quality of the surimi gel.