Improvement of flavor and gel properties of silver carp surimi product by Litsea cubeba oil high internal phase emulsions

In this study, high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) using casein as stabilizer and soybean oil and Litsea cubeba oil (LCO) as internal phase were prepared and added into silver carp surimi. The effects of LCO-HIPEs on the gel and flavor properties of surimi product were studied. After chopping, heating and storing, LCO-HIPEs showed emulsion droplets with particle size of 11 μm and remained solid structure. Compared with Oil-added surimi gels, HIPEs-added groups exhibited higher gel strength, water holding capacity and whiteness. Low-field NMR analysis revealed that HIPEs-added gels had higher proportion of bound water and immobilized water. Microstructure observation showed that LCO-HIPEs emulsion droplets in gel were smaller and evenly distributed. Moreover, SDS-PAGE showed that myosin heavy chain band in HIPEs-added gel were more attenuated than that of their Oil-added counterparts after 40 °C or 90 °C heating. HIPEs-added groups also showed higher amount of volatile compounds but lower thiobarbituric acid reaction substances value than Oil-added ones. Thus, LCO-HIPEs could be applied in surimi products to fortify flavor feature and provide fairly good gel properties and lipid oxidation stability.